Soul Gem is Not Crash
by beefskellington
Summary: A re-do of my earlier Jojo X Madoka fic: Madoka Kaname thought all the strange things in her town could be summed up as either the doing of a magical girl or a witch. That is, until she gains a bizarre new ability after coming into contact with a canister from the Speedwagon Foundation. And she isn't the only one... *Potential spoilers for both series. Expect irregular updates.*
1. Good Morning Mitakihara

**Chapter One - Good Morning Mitakihara**

" _Good morning! Greetings all. This is Mitakihara radio, and your host, once again, is me, your neighbor, Daichi Harada. To start off this wonderful morning, here is the #1 hit single, You Are My Woman…"_

The radio blared from an open window in the hospital, and Charlotte would have understood the lyrics to the song playing if she hadn't rejected her humanity.

As a witch, all she heard through her big red floppy ears was garbled noise, among the rest of the babble coming from the city around her. Endless, irritating noise that she wished would just all vanish into oblivion. Her barrier forming inside the hospital was a relief in that regard, as it blocked out some of the cacophony that scratched at the inside of her skull.

She wanted to die, and had thought she was going to. Instead, fate dealt her a cruel hand and she was consigned to an extended existence of despair. An existence as the very type of beast she hunted when she was a magical girl, now plagued by a desire to destroy the cruel world around her and rend it to nothing. To devour it apart and reduce the suffering she has to face.

A suffering that came to an end when she noticed the cheese box that had drifted into her barrier, landing on a comically oversized doughnut that sprouted forth from what was once a clean tiled floor. A parachute was attached to it, and she surmised it must have blown in from an open window right as her barrier was in the midst of spreading.

Had Charlotte still been human, she would have found it peculiar that a box of cheese would happen to float into her witch's barrier right before it was erected. As a witch, she didn't question that odd coincidence of fate. She just wanted the cheese.

A large, black serpentine beast rose forth from her bowels and through her mouth. Her second body hidden inside her tiny, mouse-like frame.

Her second face eyed the box hungrily, its large tongue sagging outside of its toothed maw, wet with saliva. She lunged forward and reached out to lap up the box with her tongue, bringing it into her waiting mouth.

When she closed her mouth, she realized the mistake she has made. Her beady eyes widened, and so did that of her second body.

Whatever was in the box, it was _definitely_ not cheese. It tasted like a rock, a sharp one that stabbed her tongue and sent a jolt through her being.

Then the world began to spin as her insides caught on fire. Her witch body began to unravel at the seams, her familiars, tiny black beings, vanishing into bits along with their barrier. Her vision clouded with darkness as she fell into a state of abrupt unconsciousness.

When Charlotte blinked her eyes open a few moments later, she wasn't Charlotte anymore. By some miracle of the universe, she was back to being Nagisa Momoe.

The, dazed twelve year old had no inkling of what happened, but there was one thing she was certain of; she had turned back into a human being, by some greater power that she could not yet explain.

The hospital room where she was consigned to returned back to normal. She felt the heavy sheets of her bed, and heard the beeping of the machines around her that was monitoring her condition. She heard the familiar blipping of the heart monitor, indicating she had a beating heart again.

Her eyes fell upon the one thing in the room that was different from what she remembered of the room before turning into Charlotte. A white cylindrical canister, the so-called "box of cheese", was placed neatly on the bedside table.

With her humanity back and her head unclouded, she could read the labels on the canister.

 _SPEEDWAGON FOUNDATION, DO NOT OPEN. METEOR FRGMT. NO. 5_

The saliva dripping across the container's lid, along with its chewed up and shredded form, were indications that what Nagisa experienced was real and not just one long, very fever dream. It all had really happened, despite how surreal it all seemed, from her becoming a magical girl and then becoming a witch, and then turning back into a regular human again.

Or was she? Was she for certain a regular human and not something else with only a human shape?

She needed to know. She needed to know what was inside that container to have done what Kyubey had said was impossible, and what else it could have done to her.

Her eye caught sight of something dark and sharp that had poked through the container's side. A rock of some sort, or, as the label suggests, a piece of some meteorite.

Nagisa reached her arm out forward, but the container was out of her reach. She was practically tied to her bed by the way the sheets were folded on her body, and she was too weak to move or reach any further. She struggled again, with nothing on her mind but to grab the box and learn of its secrets before any of the staff would come and take it away. That's the one thing adults liked to do the most, to take things away.

She poured her willpower into the next attempt, and then something happened that caused her eyes to go wide with fear.

A black arm, thick in muscle and covered in polka dots, shot out of her own arm and grabbed the container. As if reacting to her thoughts like a phantom limb she never knew she had, it brought the container over and vanished once its task was complete, leaving a frightened little girl thinking she was possessed by a demon.

Perhaps she wasn't entirely back to normal after all.

* * *

 **Elsewhere**

The dream was different this time. There was no monster floating in the sky. The ring of floating, broken buildings was still there, but there wasn't an upside down cackling monster at the center of it.

Instead, it was a small, human-shaped silhouette sitting atop a large, yellow object that was several times bigger.

Madoka Kaname's eyes widened as she realized what that object was.

A steam roller. It was an entire goddamn steam roller, and it was speeding right towards her at an impossible speed, hurtling through the skies like a meteorite of metal, internet memes and death.

"What the-" Madoka said.

"ROAD ROLLER DA!" came a banshee's cry.

Madoka's thoughts cut off as the steam roller collided right into her, causing her to snap awake. She sat up in cold sweat, nearly knocking one of many stuffed animals on her bed over.

She placed a palm on her forehead and took a deep breath.

Her last dream had been pretty bizarre, involving a girl, Homura Akemi, she met the next day, almost like a precognition of sorts. If this dream also had precognitive qualities, then she needed to keep clear of any construction sites. Who knows when a steam roller would come flying out to squash her like in the dream?

A silly thought for sure, but anything was possible these past few days. Learning that an upperclassmen was a magical girl, along with the shocker that magical girls were real and not exclusive to the realms of anime and manga, made her a believer in almost anything. Heck, she'd believe in vampires, rock people and flying rods at this point.

The alarm clock besides her bed beeped. She looked at the numbers displayed, and her heart sank.

She was going to be late for school.

"Madoka? Are you awake yet? School is going to start soon!"

It was her father who called out. Panic seized her and she quickly jumped off the bed to go through her morning routine.

"Coming dad!"

* * *

 **-MADOKA'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: SOUL GEM IS NOT CLASH-**

*cue Breakdown playing*

* * *

The journey to school was wrought with danger, more so than expected.

Madoka Kaname had underestimated how much the dream rattled her, until she found herself too fearful to go the usual route to school because there was a visible construction site nearby. She didn't bother to see if there was a steamroller or not, for she quickly chose another route to school.

So addled was her mind that morning that she wasn't looking ahead when she bumped straight into a person.

Madoka lost her balance and fell backward, her arms spinning in the air comically, her schoolbag wrenched from her grasp.

Or so she thought, until she blinked open her eyes a second later and found that her school bag was still in her hand, and she wasn't falling over at all. She was standing perfectly fine.

 _Eh? How can that be! I was sure I was falling-_ Madoka thought.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry," The woman she bumped into said, who, judging from the white medical coat she had on, probably worked at the hospital.

She was a foreigner, and a pretty one at that. With flawless fair skin, and beautiful purple eyes sparkling beneath her under rim glasses, the woman looked like she belonged on the cover of a fashion magazine. Her curly, cropped purple hair caught the rays of the morning sun, and the tight turtleneck and pencil skirt she wore beneath her coat accentuated her slim, fit figure and shapely legs.

Madoka didn't know if it was because of European culture or fashion sense, but the woman definitely showed her love for gear shaped designs as evidenced by her clothing. Everything from the earrings dangling from her ears to the brooches dotting the collar of her coat, to the patterns across her dark leggings were shaped like miniature cogs. There were even gear patterns on her yellow umbrella, which she had propped open to protect her from the heat of the sunlight.

"I was in a hurry to get to work, and I didn't see where I was going! Sorry!" The woman said, her Japanese as impeccable as her looks. She offered a nervous smile that made her seem like a _meganekko_ anime character brought to life.

"Oh no worries," Madoka smiled back, and did a quick bow in return. "It was my fault for not seeing where I was going. I was in a hurry too-"

She lifted her head to see that the woman was long gone, bolting across the street, the coffee cup in her hand at high risk of nearly spinning over.

"What an odd woman," Madoka said. Then she glanced at her own watch, then ran off at the same speed as the woman, realizing quickly that being tardy was almost guaranteed at this point.

Eventually, after running for what felt like an entire marathon, she stopped to catch her breath. Coincidentally, she had stopped right where she usually met her friends. Only they weren't there now. How could she expect them to be, when school was going to start in only a minute or so?

But apparently one of her friends didn't get the message.

A hand suddenly landed on her shoulder, nearly startling her out of her wits. She blurted out a scream.

"Geez Madoka, relax. It's just me."

Madoka whirled around, and saw a girl with short blue hair and equally blue eyes, with a music note themed hairpin and the same school uniform as her.

"Sayaka...you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Sayaka Miki chuckled. "Sorry about that. I didn't expect to scare you _that_ badly."

Madoka let out a sigh, her heart steadily reduced its pounding so it no longer sounded like a jackhammer. "What are you doing out here? Isn't school about to begin?"

"About that," Sayaka smiled. Then fished out a spherical, black object with a pointed tip growing out of its surface from her school bag. An intricate design was etched into the center of its body.

Madoka's eyes went wide at the sight of the object.

Only a few days ago, she and Sayaka met Mami Tomoe, a magical girl who introduced them to a world of magic and witches. As a result, Madoka recognized the object in her friend's grasp. It was a grief seed as Mami explained. Every witch drops a grief seed upon defeat and serves as fuel for a magical girl's power.

Which meant the notion of Sayaka, who was most certainly not a magical girl, getting her hands on one was just begging for questions to be raised. A lot of them.

"Sayaka...where did you get... _that_?" Madoka said.

"Well…" Sayaka smirked. Her expression became sly.

"Y-You didn't steal it from Mami did you?"

"Wha-no! Of course not!"

"You made a wish with Kyubey-san then?"

"No!" Sayaka waved her hands frantically. "Not yet anyway. Though I'm thinking about it."

"Then how did you get that!" Madoka pointed to the seed. "Only magical girls could get their hands on those things."

Sayaka fell silent, grinning as she put the grief seed back into her school bag. She then brought Madoka close and whispered. "You're not gonna believe this, but there's a whole house filled with them."

"An... _entire_ house of grief seeds?" Madoka gasped. Based on what little she knew from Mami, then it meant a house entirely filled with slain witches. The thought of an entire nest of those frightening monsters sent a shiver down her spine.

"Sayaka that's dangerous! If there's so many seeds, then who knows how many witches are inside it!"

"That's the even weirder part. The house was abandoned. There was nothing in it."

Madoka raised an eyebrow. "No...no witches or anything?"

"No. There weren't even a mouse inside. And none of that trippy witch's barrier stuff sprang around me."

"Well, I'm relieved you are safe," Madoka said. "But we should tell Mami about this."

"She didn't show up to school today," Sayaka shrugged. "Guess she was sick."

Then she brought her voice down to a whisper again. "Besides...don't you want to check it out?"

"Sayaka...we're late for school," Madoka said. She didn't run all that way for nothing. And she wasn't about to visit an abandoned house filled with grief seeds and god knows what else. "I don't think it's a good idea to go there by ourselves...not without Mami with us...or Homura."

"The transfer student?" Sayaka rolled her eyes. "As if we need her help."

"Sayaka…" Madoka took on a doting tone, like the voice of a parent trying to dissuade a child from doing something stupid. And she had a feeling Sayaka was going to something _particularly_ stupid this morning.

"Fine...fine," Sayaka said, hands raised up in defeat. "You go to school. _I'll_ be checking out the house."

She ran off before Madoka could say a word.

"Sayaka!" Madoka said. It was too late.

"I'm going to regret this," Madoka sighed. Then went off after her friend to keep her from getting into trouble. "Hey Sayaka! Wait up!"

* * *

There was one thing Sayaka failed to mention. The place looked downright haunted. Madoka didn't know if it was actually haunted of course, but she wouldn't be surprised if it was.

The house in question was a three story Victorian-style dwelling nudged into an obscure part of Mitakihara, away from the hustle and bustle of the main streets. And it was too old to be possibly standing and should have either been demolished ages ago or be part of a ghost sightings tour to scam tourists out of their money. The wooden facade was worn, some boards were outright gone, and all the windows were either caked in grime, broken, or boarded up. Shingles were peeled from the roofs, plucked like the feathers of a chicken and exposing the bare wood underneath.

"Sayaka...how did you find this place?" Madoka said.

"I overheard a rumor from someone at school just as I was about to leave, about a haunted house near the outskirts of town," Sayaka replied. "Then I checked this place out, and saw a magical girl leaving the front door."

"A magical girl?" Madoka perked up. "Was she Mami?"

"No...someone else. And she brought out a huge bag of things with her. _These_ things." Sayaka raised the grief seed. "She dropped it as she left, and I snuck in to take a look. There's dozens of these in the house."

"We...shouldn't really be here." Madoka said.

Her words went unheeded as Sayaka began her way up the steps which creaked with each step she took.

"Sayaka, you shouldn't-" Madoka suddenly saw something in one of the few windows that was still relatively clean. A pale, flickering shape that vanished the moment she blinked.

She had a bad feeling about whatever was in the house. The possibility there was a witch inside was high, or it could even have been something worse. With Mami around, she might've felt safe, what with her magic powers and ability to sprout rifles seemingly out of nothing and all. But with only her and Sayaka, who lacked any sort of supernatural powers as a means of defense, they were easy pickings to the things that may be lurking in the shadows of the house.

"Sayaka we should get out of here," Madoka turned back, to see that Sayaka was gone and the door was slightly ajar.

Then a scream came from inside. A scream she recognized as being Sayaka's.

"Sayaka!" Madoka yelled. Her mind raced with thoughts, her pulse pounded. She began to panic, not knowing what she should do, or what she could do.

She had Mami's number after they met, but it may already be too late to call her, especially if Sayaka's guess was right and that she was sick. Who knows how long it would take her to arrive...

Madoka worked up courage and let out a deep breath. Even without magical powers, she'd be an awful friend if she didn't do anything. Then she ran in after her friend and into the inside of the house.

The interior of the place was less dirty than expected, with fewer cobwebs than she thought there would be. There were old, dusty furniture to go along with the empty picture frames and a long dead fireplace in what remained of the living room.

The emptiness and silence gave her the creeps. She needed to find Sayaka and get out quickly, before the residents of this place get to them, though she feared they may have already gotten her friend.

She quickly shook that thought out of her head and made her way deep into the house.

"Sayaka…?" Madoka kept her voice as low as possible.

The floorboards squeaked beneath her feet as she made her way to a hall that connected to the living room. One of the doors was agape, and she peeked inside.

And saw a spot of blue hair with a music shaped hairpin tied to it.

 _Sayaka!_ Madoka opened the door as carefully as she can, then inched her way inside.

Sayaka was doubled over, trembling with her back turned, face away. Her knees were held close to her chest, the rest of the room cloaked in shadow. She didn't say a word.

Now, Madoka was not an avid watcher of horror movies for she just wasn't into that kind of stuff, but she could recognize a textbook example of a horror movie scenario when she saw one. She wasn't even sure if it was Sayaka, as ridiculous as it sounded. It could be a demon or a ghost pretending it was her friend, tricking into getting her closer.

Or maybe...just maybe...it was a witch. Can witches camouflage themselves? Shapeshift into friends to lure in their prey? She didn't know, but there was only one thing to do at this point, no matter how much fear was wrapped around her heart.

She did her best to calm her addled nerves, and inched her way into the room.

"Sayaka…?"

Sayaka said nothing, her face still turned away. The atmosphere became thick with tension, accentuated by the stale air. The dread became almost corporeal, and her mind began to imagine a series of manga sound effects floating across the room.

 **ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ**

"Sayaka…?" Madoka called out again, and again no response. She reached out with a shaking hand.

"Sayaka…?"

Sayaka yelled, and Madoka's heart nearly stopped entirely.

"Wow! Look at all these!" Sayaka turned around, a beaming grin on her face, her eyes sparkling with wonder. She was the Sayaka she knew and loved, and not some horror movie monster that she thought she had become. But damn if she didn't stifle the desire to smack her across the face.

The day was simply not going well for Madoka. The nightmare about steamrollers, getting nearly scared to death by her friend twice, and now playing hookie inside a dilapidated house.

"Hey Madoka, you okay?" Sayaka said, finally taking notice of her. "You look as pale as a sheet."

 _Yeah, no thanks to you!_ Madoka thought. She swiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. "I'm fine. Let's just get out of here!"

"Hold on take a look at this…" Sayaka said, nodding towards the floorboards near her. Madoka walked closer and saw that an entire portion of the floor had been hollowed out, the floorboards around the hollow area designed to be easily removable.

And beneath those floorboards was a compartment that contained more grief seeds than she could count. Sayaka told her there were dozens of them. The compartment looked like it contained hundreds.

"OH MY GOD!" Madoka shouted.

"Hey quiet! You'll wake the whole place up," Sayaka said. "If there is anyone to wake up of course."

"Sayaka...what are all these grief seeds doing here?" Madoka said.

"Beats me. Thankfully none of the witches are around. Otherwise we'd see them by now." Sayaka smiled. Madoka did not share her friend's comfort at the thought. Something had taken all those grief seeds, and she didn't want to be around whatever that could hunt witches so easily when it came back.

"Hey...you know what I think?" Sayaka said.

"That we should get out of here?" Madoka quickly quipped back.

"No. I think this is some sort of **「** magical girl bank **」**."

Madoka raised an eyebrow. "A magical girl...bank?"

"Yeah. A repository of some sorts for grief seeds. I don't even think Mami could get so many in such a short time. There were way more than I remembered there being! Maybe a group of magical girls dump all their extra seeds together and give it out to those that need it."

"Well whatever it is, this place gives me the creeps, lets-" Madoka caught sight of something that stood out from the rest of the grief seeds. She pointed to it. "Hey Sayaka, what is that?"

Sayaka followed her gaze. "Huh? I don't know."

Cluttered among the various grief seeds was a large white, cylinder shaped container. There were big bold letters written across its side, with a logo resembling a spoked wheel right above the words.

"Speedwagon Foundation...do not open…" Sayaka read off the labels.

"It says it is number three." Madoka said. "Could there be more of them?"

"I don't know. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it isn't important." Sayaka proceeded to pocket some of the seeds.

"Sayaka! What are you doing!"

Sayaka awkwardly grinned. "I figure I could repay the kindness Mami showed us by giving her some of these. I mean there's so much of it, the owners wouldn't miss if I take a few right?"

"Sayaka...that's still stealing."

Sayaka pouted. "Fine fine, I'll put these back."

Madoka nodded in approval. Sayaka was many things but she'd be damned if she was going to let her friend down the slippery slope to a life of crime.

She would have left then and there and took Sayaka with her, if the white container wasn't beckoning to her. Almost begging for her attention.

Without thinking, she moved to the container and picked it up from the pile of seeds.

"I thought you said that was stealing," Sayaka joked. Madoka ignored her and studied the container in her hands. There was nothing special about it from the outset, but she could not shake the feeling that whatever was inside it held something dangerous.

"I'm just checking it out," Madoka finally replied. Just as she felt a sharp prickling across her finger.

"Ouch!" She dropped the box.

"H-Hey! Are you alright!"

"Yeah...I just prickled myself," Madoka glanced down at her scratch across her finger, and the blood trickling down from it. She then turned her attention to the container she dropped. There had been a small hole chipped into its side that she failed to notice, which now had a pointed piece of rock jutting out of it. She had probably inadvertently bounced the rock inside the container, causing its sharp point to fall right into the hole right as her finger was hovering over it.

She just hoped she wasn't infected with anything.

"Hey, you're right we should get out of here," Sayaka said. 'We need to get you to the school nurse."

Madoka blinked. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The pain in her finger was gone, and so was the wound. "Actually I'm fine."

"Huh?" Sayaka gawked.

"The cut. It was bleeding a second ago, but now it was healed."

"That's crazy," Sayaka said.

"As crazy as a haunted house filled with grief seeds?"

"Oh please, the haunted part is just a rumor. For all we know, the magical girls running this place only started that to keep people out of this place."

Madoka wished she shared her friend's enthusiasm, but she saw something that caused her to turn even more pale than a sheet. Her knuckles became white, and her eyes went wide with the only genuine terror she felt today. She slowly stepped back.

"Hey Madoka, what's the matter with you?" Sayaka said. She had yet to notice that the rumors were not rumors, and that a ghost had really appeared behind her.

"Sayaka...stay quiet and come this way." Madoka said, her voice kept to a low whisper.

Sayaka looked confused, completely oblivious to the figure that had walked right out of the wall, standing behind her.

It was a head taller than Sayaka, and had a beige and grey body resembling a cybernetic mannequin It had a halo hovering over its head like an angel's, attached to a wire jutting out of the nape of its neck, and a single wing came out of its right shoulder, made of metal rather than feathers. Its head was round like a ball with a wide mouth and a single tuft of wiry grey hair in between its yellow, striated eyes, which seemed to have been made from the glass of a car's headlights. A series of pipes sprouted forth from the edge of its muscles and calves, linking to its back.

Calling it an angel or a ghost was nonsense. Madoka knew what the creature really was.

A witch was in the house. One that didn't feel the need to make a barrier.

It opened its wide mouth to speak, in a distorted voice that was equal parts mechanical and human.

" **「** Quiet Riot **」**...will **「** punish **」** all **「** thieves **」**."

Then, to Madoka's horror, one of its hands reached for Sayaka.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Here's to new beginnings


	2. The New Kriemhild Gretchen part1

**Chapter Two - The New Kriemhild Gretchen Part 1**

"Sayaka, run!" Madoka said.

To her dismay, Sayaka didn't. She stared at her like a ditz, a ditz who didn't realize an otherworldly monster was reaching for her neck. "Huh? What for?"

The witch, which could miraculously talk and even introduce itself, continued to rattle on.

"No **「** thieves **」** shall leave this place in one piece!"

How could Sayaka not hear it talk when it was loud and so close behind her? Was she deaf? She barely reacted at all.

Panic swelled inside her. It was now far too late to call Mami, or anyone else for help. Not that she believes they would be of much help. There was something off about the witch, about Quiet Riot, that made it different than the witch Mami fought. It wasn't a mindless animal, but showed signs of intelligence. And it was degrees smaller, and lacked any barrier, or familiars for that matter. Otherwise they would have appeared once the witch did.

Quiet Riot's arm arched towards Sayaka, and time slowed. The panic inside Madoka became fear, and that fear converted to adrenaline. Energy swelled inside her, rising from deep within her being and erupting out from her body, answering her desire to protect her friend from danger.

Specifically, it erupted out in the form of a ghostly shape baring clenched fists.

Madoka froze, as another body came out of her own and struck the witch on the side of head with a mighty jab, packed with enough force to dent its face and send it flying into the wall with a pained gasp.

Despite striking the wall, the witch caused no force with its impact. There was no crashing sound, and no dust being kicked up. It simply vanished through it.

Sayaka stood dumbfounded, the air from the blow still causing her hair to flutter.

"W-What was with that gust of wind just now?" Sayaka said.

Madoka wished she could answer her, but she didn't have the answers. Especially on how she had the ability to summon a strange being from her body.

It was as tall as Quiet Riot, and at the same time more feminine and imposing. Its body was wrapped in a night-black gown that ended in large, trailing wires that roughly came together to approximate the shape of a skirt, exposing the metallic grey legs it had underneath. Its head was tucked inside a pointed black hood with ribbons tied to the sides, half of its face obscured by a bony white mask with a miniature globe where its right eye should be, the other half completely shrouded by a black veil. On the back of each of its shiny fists was a symbol resembling the planet Saturn, only with a swirly milk and chocolate colorization.

For the span of a few moments, Madoka could feel the breath being stifled in her throat. The creature hovered in the air around her, wrapped in a bright pink aura. It turned and stared at her, and she could feel the hairs rising on the back of her neck.

Then it vanished, leaving Madoka to her shock.

The other being, Quiet Riot, also was gone. Whatever they were, she only now realized they weren't witches, at least not the normal ones. She couldn't put a finger on it, but she had a feeling they were worse.

"Sayaka...we gotta get out of here!" Madoka said. "There's actual **「** ghosts **」** in here!"

"Ghosts?" Sayaka said.

"Yes! Ghosts! Like the two that were _just right in front of you_!"

Sayaka blinked. "What are you talking about? I didn't see anything."

Madoka's jaw nearly dropped to her ankles. Was Sayaka blind? Insane? All that commotion, and the two creatures floating just inches away from her, happened to impossibly pass her notice. None of it made any damn sense.

" _Damn, to think there is another one in town to gain the same_ **「** ability **」** _as me…_ "

The voice came from behind. Sayaka's gasped, her gaze affixed to something behind Madoka. She slowly turned around.

A girl was standing besides the doorway. Blood trailed from the corner of her lip, which she brought up a sleeve to wipe away.

She was around Madoka's age, with dark brown twintails that went all the way to her waist, tied together by red bowties. The red and green outfit she wore made her look like a cosplayer, with its numerous designs, brooches and ruffled frills than was more than what was considered excessive, though the tiny gem at the center of her chest piece indicated she was no cosplayer.

"Damn thieves...I knew I wasn't counting wrong," the magical girl pointed an accusing finger at Madoka, then at Sayaka. "Which one of you stole one of my grief seeds?"

Madoka and Sayaka stared at each other, then turned back to the girl not saying a word.

"Not saying anything?" The magical girl chuckled. "Only the guilty don't answer a question when asked."

Sayaka frantically waved her arms around. "Wait wait wait, this is all a misunderstanding! We just came here because we heard there were ghosts in this house!"

Madoka knew she was lying through her teeth. She feared the newcomer thought the same.

"Oh?" The girl said. "That may be so, but one of you is a damn **「** stand user **」**."

"A...what user?" Sayaka replied, eyebrow raised.

The girl then glared at Madoka.

Madoka gulped. She could sense the intensity coming off the girl like heat coming from an oven. The rumbling in the air got worse.

"You got scratched by **「** it **」** didn't you? The **「** miracle stone **」** inside the container?"

Madoka didn't answer.

"I thought I would be the only one in town to gain this ability," The girl tapped the gem on her chest. It slightly glowed, outlining what Madoka thought was a shape that was hidden inside it before disappearing. "I thought it would give me a **「** competitive advantage **」** over the other magical girls in this territory. That **「** competitive advantage **」** is now gone, since now there is another one just like me…"

The gem belched forth a silver aura, and Quiet Riot came out of it in a wispy wave of smoke, like a genie being coaxed out of its lamp. It floated around the girl's back, fists clenched and wide mouth forming a grin. Its eyes sparkled, and so did the girl's as she summoned a shiny double sided battle axe, formed from her magic in the same way Mami formed her rifles.

"Guess I will have to **「** eliminate **」** the **「** competition **」**." The girl shrugged, hefting the axe as if it was a paperweight despite its blades being close to the size that would have allowed it to cut down a bear.

The girl stepped forward, and both Madoka and Sayaka took a step back.

"Hey hey hey! Hold on a minute! It's not her fault, so leave her out of it!" Sayaka said. "It's mine! I admit it! I took one out of curiosity!" She showed the seed she took and dropped it back into the pit containing the rest. "See? I'm giving it back to you! No need to violent alright!"

The girl pursed her lips. Her eyes were predatory like an eagle's. "I can't spare your pink haired friend. Not when she has a **「** stand **」**. That makes her the greatest rival I have in Mitakihara. Besides...I don't like trespassers on my **「** place of business **」**."

"Y-You're talking about me?" Madoka said. "I don't...I don't even know what a stand is."

"That's a load of crap," the girl said. "Or are you going to pretend you didn't punch my **「** Quiet Riot **」** in the face with your stand?"

Was she talking about the shadowy ghostlike figure that had appeared seconds ago? Mami never told her about anything called stands. She thought magical girls, witches, and whatever Kyubey was were the only bizarre things in Mitakihara, in the world even. She was mistaken, and whatever these stand things were, the girl had one.

And then the realization that Madoka had one herself slowly dawned on her.

"That was a stand?" Madoka said.

The girl lost her intense expression. Her lips curled into a grin. "Oh I see, you don't know how to properly control your stand yet. Of course, it'd make sense. You got prickled only recently."

The axe disappeared, along with Quiet Riot and the rest of her magical girl uniform. To Madoka's surprise, she had a Mitakihara Middle School Uniform underneath.

The girl stroked her chin. "Hmmm...I guess I can forgive you. If you two were just curious."

Madoka could hear Sayaka let out a sigh of relief.

"Of course I'll only forgive you...if you pay me back with interest." The girl rubbed her fingers together.

"Interest?" Sayaka said.

"Yes. Interest. Ten grief seeds for the one you stole!"

Sayaka's jaw dropped. "What! How are we supposed to get that many! We aren't even magical girls!"

"No…" The girl nodded towards Madoka. "...but she's a stand user. She can do it."

"Forget it! You're crazy...and speaking nonsense!" Sayaka said.

"What's crazy is that I'm letting you two off light," The girl scoffed. "Despite you being intruders on my **「** black market grief seed **」** business."

"Black market...grief seed business?" Madoka said.

"Correct," The girl grinned proudly. "Well...it isn't really black market, no market at all for grief seeds really. But it sounds cool and I don't know what else to call it.

"Y'all can call me「Elly」by the way. That's my「handle name」. And I collect grief seeds for those girls that need it, or are too damn weak to hunt for themselves." She rubbed the tips of her fingers together. "They just have to pay for it of course. Each seed fetches ten thousand yen."

"Ten thousand yen?" Sayaka was flabbergasted. "That's cruel!"

"Oh please. There's designer socks and shoes out there more expensive than that. I'm doing my clientele a favor by doing what I do. Ten thousand yen is a small price to pay for not turning into a goddamn witch!"

Madoka fell silent. She could hear a gasp come from Sayaka. Turning into a witch was one thing Mami didn't tell them about when becoming a magical girl.

"That's insane. Magical girls don't turn into witches!"

"Oh?" Elly snorted. "And what do you know? You aren't one." She pointed a thumb at her chest. "Besides...I'm「living」proof. I was formerly a **「** witch **」** myself."

"What?" Sayaka said. "That's absurd."

Madoka wanted to agree, but she could sense that the girl wasn't normal. Unnatural even by the standards of a magical girl, for she didn't see Mami call out a ghostlike being that resembled a humanoid witch. She feared that there was truth to Elly's words, which meant that there more than Mami let on, or there were mysteries that not even she knows about despite being a magical girl veteran.

"Yes, it is damned absurd!" Elly said. "That bastard Kyubey lied to all of us. But it doesn't matter anymore."

She pointed towards the grief seeds, to the cylinder containing the rock that pierced Madoka.

"I don't know what this **「** Speedwagon Foundation **」** is, but that rock is a **「** true miracle **」**. It can not only turn witches back into **「** magical girls **」** , but also change their soul gems. Make them unable to be corrupted into grief seeds. And their **「** witch forms **」** …become their 「stands」...like my Quiet Riot. Though it looks more like my former familiar."

Sayaka flung her hands in the air. "I've had enough of this." She picked up her schoolbag from the floor and proceeded to make her way towards the doorway where Elly was standing.

"You're crazy, and I don't understand a word you are saying. So we're leaving." Sayaka turned to Madoka. "Let's go Madoka."

"So you're not going to honor your part of the bargain?" Elly said.

"No!" Sayaka replied, despite the fact that Madoka felt the question was more directed to her. "I don't agree to any of it. And if you try to stop us I'm calling the cops. Or Mami."

Elly's lips upturned into a sinister grin, causing Madoka to tense up. She could feel there was something bad being plotted inside the girl's skull.

"Mami huh? You don't happen to be talking about _the_ **「** Mami Tomoe **」** do you?"

"W-What?" Sayaka stuttered. "You know Mami?"

"Of course. She's the veteran magical girl who operates a sizable territory in this area." Elly grinned.

"Word on the street is that she's locked herself in her apartment, claiming she's been possessed by a 「witch」 that can come out of her body." The room became filled with Elly's laughter. "That「idiot」doesn't even know the「new power」she has attained! Thinking it is a curse when it is a gift…"

Sayaka suddenly reached out and forcibly grabbed Elly's arm, causing her to cease laughing.

"Don't talk to Mami like that! She's not an idiot!"

"You're right," Elly snarled. "Compared to you, she's a certified genius."

Within a flash, Elly triggered her magical girl transformation, her entire body becoming bathed in a green light. There was no elaborate transformation sequence, no choreographed moves like what Madoka saw Mami do. She simply transformed in a blink, causing Sayaka to let go and fall back.

But not before Quiet Riot came out of the girl's soul gem again to grip Sayaka right on her bicep.

"Sayaka!" Madoka yelled.

Sayaka yelled out a painful " _Gack!_ " as something happened to make Madoka's stomach churn.

The sleeve around where Quiet Riot had grabbed her turned semi-transparent, and the flesh underneath soon after. Sayaka's pinkish red muscles were completely exposed, but that too turned semi-transparent until her very bone was visible.

Then, to Madoka's utter horror, Quiet Riot's fingers bypassed the sleeve, flesh and muscle to grab the bone. Passing through them like a ghost.

"W-What are you doing!" Sayaka yelled. Tears were welling in her eyes. "Stop...it hurts!"

Upon hearing her cries, Elly only smiled. And so did her monstrous companion. "My friend here has a very 「unique ability」. Anything it「touches」 can turn「intangible」...like a ghost you see in movies. Objects, and people, it doesn't matter."

Quiet Riot tightened its grip around Sayaka's bone, causing her to scream. Elly continued to speak. "It can also make your flesh intangible, allowing me to break your bones or crush your organs without making a scratch on your skin." She pointed down towards her grief seed collection.

"It's how I got the grief seeds you tried to steal. My Quiet Riot will just reach into a witch and pull the seed out." Elly turned to Madoka. "Like how I will rip out your friend's humerus if you don't get me more grief seeds by tomorrow. Deal?"

Madoka gulped. She was terrified, her fist trembling. But her friend needed help.

"Yes! Yes…" Madoka shouted. "I'll do anything...just...leave Sayaka alone!"

"Good…" Elly said. Quiet Riot released its hold on Sayaka and she crumpled to the floor. She gripped her arm, and winced. Madoka quickly ran to her.

"Sayaka...are you alright?"

"Yeah…" Sayaka said. "My arm hurts...I don't know what that girl did!"

Madoka then turned to Elly, right as she walked towards the door, her back turned. "How could you?"

Elly stopped. She glared over her shoulder.

"You're supposed to be a magical girl," Madoka said. "You're supposed to be protecting people...not hurting them!"

"Oh please...spare me that goody two shoes crap," Elly said, turning completely around. "I used to be like you...and I got turned into a witch for it. Never again am I looking out for others. And for trying to tell me how I should behave...I'm making you get me twenty seeds instead of ten."

"You...you can't bully us like this," Madoka said.

"Bully?" Elly said. "I'm not bullying you. I'm merely punishing a thief and her accomplice! Now stop stalling...or I'll go after your「parents」next."

The words slapped Madoka across the face. "What?"

"You heard me," Elly said, turning away. "Don't think I can't do it either. It won't take long for me to track down your parents. You have parents don't you?"

Her lips formed a wicked smile. "Judging by that expression on your face, I guess you do. Have twenty seeds by this time tomorrow or I will make anyone that knows your name on a personal level suffer."

In that instant, as Elly's words reached Madoka's ears, something in her changed. Her fear became overwhelmed by a deep anger she did not know she had. An inner voice speaking out for the first time, telling her to forget her usual kind hearted self, her timid nature, and become ruthless for the sake of protecting her loved ones from the evil standing in front of her.

A dark determination flared in her irises, replacing them with flames as black as a starless night. Something took over her that moment, causing her to stand resolute, to glare at Elly with furrowed brows.

"Endless Dream!" Madoka shouted.

The creature that had flown out of Madoka's body earlier appeared once again behind its user, bathed in a bright pink aura that matched the intensity of Quiet Riot's. She had thought it to be a monster like Quiet Riot, another witch-like being that could only be used to cause harm. She now realized that its purpose wasn't to cause harm, but to serve as an extra body, to answer the call of every one of her thoughts. She was the master, and it her ever faithful servant.

Her stand,「Endless Dream」.

The name sort of just flickered in her mind. It was a fitting name, since she's been having strange dreams lately. Heck, life itself was turning surreal like one big dream with magic girls and witches, and the introduction of stands only made it all the more bizarre.

"Endless Dream? You came up with a name for your stand already?" Elly smirked. "And what is this? What's with this sudden change in heart? Are you going to try to fight me?" She sounded joyously amused.

"No one threatens my family!" Madoka's voice took on a knife-sharp edge.

"Hey...what's with the fires in your eyes?" Sayaka said, sounding clearly nervous.

"So you do want to fight me…" Elly rubbed her chin. "But you don't seem to be able to transform into a magical girl. Meaning you are at a disadvantage. You only have「one kind」of ability, but I have two!"

Her magic axe appeared in her hand and she suddenly flung it towards Madoka. Ripples of bright electricity formed across its blades.

So the girl had lightning magic. Madoka's recently acquired tough facade broke away and she let out a yelp of terror as the axe came towards her.

Endless Dream suddenly kicked a grief seed up from the floor towards the axe. Its kick was strong enough to cause the tiny object to deflect the axe when it struck it. The axe flew up and lodged itself into the ceiling, the seed landing only inches away from Elly's feet, stabbing into the wood of the floorboards.

"Hmmm…" Elly eyed the stand and its user. "Impressive. It seems to be a「close range」 strength type. It's certainly strong, enough to deflect my magic, 「Alta Tensione」 with a mere grief seed coupled with the power of its kick. But as long as I stay out of your「pitiful range」, there's nothing you can...ow!"

She reached for her cheek and drew forth blood. Madoka herself had to blink several times to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

The grief seed that supposedly missed was no longer stuck in the boards. It had reappeared on Elly's cheek, it's sharp end lodged inside her cheek and causing a trail of blood to drip down to her chin.

"What the hell...what did you do to this seed!" Elly shouted.

"Wha-but I didn't…" Madoka stopped when she noticed there was not just one seed, but a whole row of them. But to call each one a seed as its own object was inaccurate. They were more like semi-transparent afterimages, lined up in an arc shaped path directly towards Elly's cheek, like motions slowed down in free fall. The surreal imagery brought to mind the inspiration for Marcel Duchamp's famous painting, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.

"You brat!" Elly yelled, seemingly oblivious to the extra seeds for her eyes remained glued on Madoka. Not that she'd notice now, as the seeds quickly faded when Madoka blinked. She became bathed in a similar aura to the one belonging to Endless Dream, and Quiet Riot promptly materialized out of it. "I won't kill you...but I'm going to teach you a lesson!"

Quiet Riot's grin widened, stretching to where its ears would have been. It lunged forward, propelled by a single wing, its arms outstretched, its fingers curved into grasping claws.

Madoka stared on in horror, a gasp caught in her throat that prevented her from screaming. Her stand on the other hand began to emit a faint white glow from its fists.

It struck out, the speed of its moving arm causing the air to rip, to cause Madoka's twintails to flutter. However, it missed. Quiet Riot nudged its head left quicker than Endless Dream could punch, the stand only being slightly grazed by the aura of light.

"Ha! Your stand may be strong...but it can't match my Quiet Riot's speed!"

Then the stand stopped. And Elly let out a gasp.

There were now two Quiet Riots instead of one. In the span of the past second, when Elly's stand was grazed by the light of Endless Dream's fist, a doppelganger shifted from the one that managed to dodge. The doppelganger of course wasn't so lucky, for Endless Dream's knuckles were buried deep into the side of its face, its eyes bulging in shock and pain.

"Impossible! How can there be more than one「Quiet Riot」!" Elly yelled. Madoka had thought the stand multiplying was its user's doing but Elly's surprise disproved that.

And then he stand began to multiply more. Clone after clone began to sprout from the original stand and its double, as if the stands were summoning stands themselves.

All of them were frozen in specific poses, some in the midst of tackling towards Madoka, others stuck in free fall with a bruise across their cheeks. Many of them overlapped, like translucent images over-imposed on others, making them seem to be not actual doubles but more akin to static images or reflections.

"What is this! What the hell is-"

The light from Endless Dream's fist contracted as Elly was stuttering. When it did, the afterimages collided into one another, including what Madoka thought to be the original stand, which merged with the others into the one version of Quiet Riot that was at the receiving end of Endless Dream's punch.

Then, Elly grunted in pain as her own head twisted from an invisible blow that pushed in her cheek. A tooth flew out.

"Eh?" Was all Elly managed to say, before Endless Dream continued the attack.

 _ **"WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI~!"**_

Madoka had thought Quiet Riot to be fast, but Endless Dream's streams of fists raged on like the mighty torrents of a river, moving so quick that they blurred into one another and forming what could only be best described as a wall of clenched knuckles. Quiet Riot seemed to move at a snail's pace in comparison.

 _ **"WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI~!"**_

Quiet Riot's head may have been spherical before, but after Endless Dream was done with it, it had obtained the shape of a lumpy orange that had been stepped on by a sturdy boot. Craters that matched the size of Endless Dream's fists completely demolished the enemy stand's face, its blows so violent that parts of its metallic skin became cracked like porcelain, and the stand was sent hurtling towards the far side of the room.

Madoka gasped. Its user was just as badly hurt.

Elly's face became covered in blood, her cheek utterly flattened by the same blows her stand received. She was briefly cross-eyed, and Madoka was certain she had knocked a tooth loose. Or several.

"Ah! Sorry! I didn't mean to!" Madoka whispered, the dark determination gone from her eyes, causing Endless Dream to vanish. Then to her horror, Elly collapsed. Fainted. Or worse, possibly dead, as evidenced by her magical girl costume disappearing as she teetered back and fell.

She wasn't about to become a cold blooded murderer and hurry to ran to check the girl's pulse. Thankfully, she was the assistant to the nurse at her school, so she knew very basic, but serviceable medical knowledge. She placed her fingers on the girl's neck, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found a pulse.

Madoka wiped a bead of sweat from her bow. "Whew, that was close-"

Elly's eyes popped open, like that of a horror movie villain who had sprung back to life.

Madoka shrieked. Her Endless Dream came back out again upon sensing its master's fear and adrenaline.

An arm shot out of the soul gem ring she had on her index finger.

With swift dexterity, Quiet Riot's arm snaked around one of Endless Dream's wrist. Madoka could feel her own arm muscles pull back as the stand's attack was stopped.

"I...I don't believe it." Elly said, blood trailing down her the corners of her lip. She glared at Madoka with the crazed eyes of an animal. "To think...a stand as strong as yours could exist in this town…"

Her lips curled into a smile, exposing her teeth, once white but now stained with red. "But even the great「Achilles」 had his「cursed tendon」. And with my stand's ability...I can grab yours!"

Quiet Riot caused Endless Dream's semi-corporeal flesh to become fully incorporeal, and reached in, clamping its fingers around the stand's radius bone.

Madoka trembled. She could feel a tight pressure beneath the skin of her wrist. A powerful, vice-like grip that made it feel as if her very bone was being squeezed by an anaconda.

"I don't know what kind of ability that was...but regardless, I will「crush」your wrist," Elly chuckled. "And make sure you can never use those devastating fists of yours ever again!"

Quiet Riot may not have been as physically strong as Endless Dream, but its grip on her wrist felt like she was being crushed by a compactor. She could barely move her hand to attack with her joints were immobilized.

When the strange light wrapped itself across Endless Dream's fist, it was more out of a subconscious thought on Madoka's part, a response to a need to protect herself.

And when it did, it came into contact quickly with Quiet Riot's grip, and again it demonstrated its strange ability. Quiet Riot sprouted multiple right arms, each in different positions, some with outstretched palms, others with hooked fingers.

The light collapsed again, and the pressure around her wrist was gone. Quiet Riot's hand grasp at empty air, mimicking a position in one of the afterimages which was the one remaining after all the other images collided into one.

"What!" Elly yelled.

Quiet Riot emerged out of Elly and went for Endless Dream's throat. Endless Dream reacted by slamming into its chest with another glowing fist. It multiplied, and again all of its other selves collided back into a position it wasn't in before, one of it flying backwards...along with its user.

Without warning, Elly teleported positions. She was afloat in the air, caught in mid-flight in a posture that mimicked the one forced upon Quiet Riot. She blinked. "Huh? Where did the floor go? Why am I staring at the ceiling?"

Momentum kicked in, and Elly was sent flying into the wall. She landed with a hard, painful thud, legs up and feet danging. Her body slumped over her head, teetering over until she was left face down.

Elly groaned, and Madoka wasn't going to make the mistake of trying to see if she was okay twice. Tending to the well being of others was part of her caring nature, but she wasn't about to risk her bones being crushed by a magic ghost witch monster and the crazy master it served.

She ran as fast as her legs would allow to Sayaka, who was in a daze from what was going on, her eyes blank.

"Sayaka!" Madoka knelt down and tried to shake her friend awake from her spell. "Sayaka! We gotta get out of here-"

"Huh?" Sayaka's eyebrows fluttered.

The floor beneath Madoka had suddenly lost its weight.

Madoka looked down, and saw that the floorboards had become half transparent, revealing a the darkness beneath.

"Ha! Have you forgotten!" Elly shouted. She was wobbly, her blood beginning to stain her magical girl dress. Madoka quickly turned to her, but not before she began to feel her body sink into the floor as if it had been made out of quicksand. Quiet Riot's foot had tapped on the ground, causing a wave of transparency to branch outward, turning everything on the floor nearly incorporeal. "I can make anything intangible! Not just your organs, but the very「floor」of this house!"

 _Uh oh._ Madoka's first instinct was to grab Sayaka with her stand. Her next...was to begin panicking.

It felt like falling through the ocean as the floor became entirely intangible, as if there never existed a floor to begin with.

She and Sayaka fell through, causing Sayaka to let out a panicked scream as the house's very support beams whizzed passed both of them.

Looking upwards, Madoka saw Elly and the pile of grief seeds from beneath. It was a sight straight out of a glitched video game, where the player would tilt their camera upwards as their character went beneath the stage.

Then she looked down. There was a pit of spikes waiting for her, each taped on long poles and with rusty, sparkling edges. And she was speeding right towards them, along with her stand who still held Sayaka.

 _Spikes? What the hell is wrong with this day!_ Madoka wished she would wake up from the nightmare any moment, but something deep down told her she wasn't dreaming.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Stand name:** Quiet Riot

 **User:** Elly

 **Namesake:** Quiet Riot (American Heavy Metal band)

 **Formerly:** Daniyyel

 **Stats:**

Destructive Power - B

Speed - B

Durability - C

Range - C

Precision - A

Development Potential - C

 **Abilities:**

Intangibility inducement \- The stand can turn anything it touches incorporeal, like that of a ghost. Intangible objects have a tendency to flow towards the center of the Earth. The user has a great degree of this ability, as she can choose to make an entire intangible, an entire person, or merely only the person's outer skin so the stand can reach into its organs and bones without creating an exit wound.

User can turn herself intangible, but runs the risk of falling towards the center of the earth and cannot maintain intangibility for too prolonged of a time.


	3. The New Kriemhild Gretchen Part 2

**Chapter Three - The New Kriemhild Gretchen part 2**

"Ha!" Elly began to gloat, briefly ignoring her injuries and the throbbing on her cheek where her tooth flew out. "I did it! No one expects that I've placed spikes underneath this house! I've rigged this entire place with my Quiet Riot! I've won!"

Elly whistled and cheered, then turned around and turned as pale as a sheet.

Right beside her was the blue haired girl, Sayaka Miki, standing beside her. Her face was stretched in shock. And Elly's face did the same, when she saw that there wasn't one Sayaka but multiple. A familiar sight given her stand had been through the very same ability.

All of the Sayakas were like frozen pictures, holograms even, with a slight translucent quality and aglow with a subtle energy.

"What...what is this ability?" Elly trembled. She had been too caught up as she was getting the snot beat out of her to properly think on it, but the curiosity nagged at her now, especially after having her stand be the victim of Endless Dream's powers twice.

She reached towards one of the Sayakas and tapped on her shoulder. Suddenly, the Sayaka she touched multiplied, all of them with different ripples across their uniform where she touched her.

"These...these aren't duplicates...that brat's stand doesn't have the power to simply multiply things...it's something else!"

Elly's mind filled with what the light could possibly do. But there were just so many possibilities as to what the stand's true ability was.

"Different...possibilities…" Elly brain lingered on those words. Then, she let out a gasp as a light bulb turned on in her mind. "Different possibilities! That brat's stand...it can manipulate「uncertainty」!"

The images she were seeing weren't clones or illusions. They were visual representations of different possibilities. In Sayaka's case, the duplicates were all possibilities where she avoided falling into the spike pit.

Elly had read something in a paper once, that of the idea of a little thing called Quantum Mechanics. The idea explains why electrons seemingly has the characteristics of both a wave and a particle.

When unobserved, electrons behaved like a wave, its many particles existing in multiple possibilities simultaneously at once. But when observed, they collide back into a single particle.

Madoka's Endless Dream did the same to anything it touched, even if it wasn't as small as an electron. Anything graced with the light produced by its fists would experience multiple possible realities at once before its user collapsed all of them into one remaining reality.

It was a ridiculous power, though one that explained all that has happened to her. It explained how Quiet Riot was hit despite clearly avoiding Endless Dream's attack, how because there was a possibility that the grief seed that landed on the floor could have hit her cheek, it did. Madoka was manipulating possibilities with the fists of her stand, which itself was a sort of field of uncertainty.

To think such a stand could exist made Elly worry for many reasons. One of them was that the pink haired brat was beginning to master and understand her own powers, otherwise Sayaka wouldn't be standing there. Another was the fear that her spike trap didn't do the job.

All of the Sayakas in the room began to collide into one another, until one remained.

"Eh?" Sayaka blinked. Her body regained its mass and color. "What happened?"

Quiet Riot reached out and grabbed Sayaka by the cuff of her collar. She let out a yelp, and when she turned to face Elly, panic written across her worried face.

"Y-You!" Sayaka yelled.

Elly ignored her, and instead raised her voice towards the floorboards.

"I have a clue about what your ability is!" Elly forced her stand's grip to tighten, causing Sayaka to visibly panic further. "If you don't come out, I'll yank her bones out, one by one!"

There was no response.

Could the spikes really have gotten her? Elly realized that couldn't have been the case. Madoka managed to save her friend with a clear use of her stand's powers, which meant she could have easily saved herself by collapsing multiple realities of herself into one where she survived. Unless…

Unless her stand's quantum uncertainty field didn't have the power to work on itself or its user. The eerie silence coming from the floor seemed to be supporting that. Madoka couldn't manipulate her own personal probabilities, meaning she couldn't get out of the floor trap once she was inside it.

That brought a smile across Elly's face.

"Wew...and I thought she'd escape…"

The floor began to rumble. Everything teetered. A tremor was hitting the place.

Surprised, Elly let go of Sayaka.

"What...what is this? An earthqu-"

 _ **"WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI~!"**_

The floorboards exploded outwards, sending bits of wood flying everywhere. Elly fell back with a shout, dropping Sayaka who whimpered and ducked, covering her head with her arms.

"What?!" Elly yelled, as Endless Dream loomed over her. It glared at her with clenched teeth, its globe eye glowing with intensity. It swung out at her.

Quiet Riot quickly brought up its own arms in defense. She felt burning in her forearms as her stand's arms bore the weight of Endless Dream's downward strike . Her opponent's stand was remarkably strong, and she feared that her guard was going to be broken within the next seconds, leaving her to be at the mercy of another barrage of rapid fire attacks.

Instead however, the stand vanished.

"Huh?" Elly looked towards the door and saw, with a span of less than a second, a blur of blue hair. Sayaka was gone, taken out the door by Madoka with her stand serving as a distraction.

She then turned her gaze towards the crater made in the floor of her warehouse. The spikes were gone, but she saw, for a split second, a translucent spike that glowed like a ghost in the darkness before flickering out of existence. A possibility that was no more.

Endless Dream saved its user not by altering the possibilities of its user, but of the spikes she was about to fall into, making them assume positions that they could have possibly taken in another reality. Either that, or it merely punched them away. It certainly was strong and fast to have done that, and Elly nearly facepalmed herself, thinking herself an idiot for thinking a few measly spikes could have stopped something that hit like a truck.

"Damn…" Elly's grinded her teeth. Her balled knuckles turned white. If word got out, if more stand users begin to appear in town other than the「other five」, then the「competitive advantage」she has with Quiet Riot will be gone. And rivals will begin to squeeze in on her turf, with Madoka being the first.

Her entire operation, her little grief seed empire, will fall apart. She wasn't going to let that happen. Especially when she just bought a a new Gucci bag.

* * *

"Madoka, what the hell is going on!?" Sayaka shouted. Madoka didn't answer.

She had her friend by the hand, and was making a break for the exit after using Endless Dream to punch her way out of the floor.

The spikes running beneath the house had been a close call and she was still reeling from it. It was by luck that her stand's reflexes were better than hers. The whole idea to make buzzsaws out of her planets was something that she'd never thought she could think of on her own. But she was thankful for it, for it saved her life.

Now she was going to save both hers and Sayaka's as they ran into the living room and headed towards the door...

Only for a large couch dropping from above to stop her dead in her tracks. It landed only inches from Madoka. Startled, she quickly lifted her head up and the ends of various objects poking through the ceiling, many of them in the midst of transparency.

The doing of Elly's stand ability.

"Sayaka! Get down!" Madoka tackled Sayaka to the floor.

The objects flew out of the ceiling, becoming heavy again and plummeting towards them.

"What is going on!?" Sayaka shouted. Madoka couldn't even begin to answer. She just knew that she needed to do something fast.

"Endless Dream!" Madoka shouted. Her stand appeared, and began to punch away anything that would come out of the walls, uttering its battlecry.

 _ **"WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI~!"**_

Elly had thrown pieces of wood, furniture, and the very spikes Madoka had avoided earlier. They collided with Endless Dream's fists and were sent hurtling to various parts of the living room, demolishing the furniture and the fire place and filling the place with dust.

A large shadow came from above. Madoka glanced up again. She saw the bottom of a fridge hanging from the ceiling.

"You've got to be kidding me," Madoka said.

Sayaka took notice. "Is...is that a fridge!?"

The fridge fell through, conveniently becoming solid right after it cleared the ceiling. And it was plummeting towards them.

"WEHI~!" Endless Dream's strike sent the fridge back, breaking through the ceiling and causing it to be stuck there, causing dust particles and splinters to drift down.

Madoka suddenly felt a hard grip on her shoulder. It was Sayaka. She was terrified, and had the face of someone who had seen the devil.

"Watch out! There's a witch in here!"

Sayaka tried to stand up and pull Madoka back, but the latter stopped her.

"Hold on a second, are you talking about「Endless Dream」?" Madoka said.

Sayaka blinked. "You...you know that thing's name?"

"Er...no, I named it. Spur of the moment thing," Madoka said. She could tell she was confusing her friend only further.

Which begged the question: how on earth was she seeing Endless Dream now when she couldn't earlier?  
"Sayaka...you can see it now?" Madoka said.

"Wha-of course I can! It's pretty hard to miss a tall, floating thing with half a face, a planet for an eye, and wearing a black wire dress!"

Unconsciously, Madoka caused Endless Dream to turn to Sayaka. As she met the stand's globe eye, she visibly shook with fright.

"It's okay Sayaka...it's a friend."

"A friend? A friend! Are you crazy! Remember what Mami said! Witches are monsters! They prey on people! They-"

Sayaka winced.

"Sayaka! Are you okay?" Madoka said.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sayaka replied. She lowered one of her socks, and Madoka saw a line of red across her shins.

"Damn, I tripped over that weird canister when we were running out," Sayaka said. "Must've cut myself on whatever was inside it."

A voice came from above. "Goddamn it...now there's「two」of you.

Like a phantom, Elly's body steadily appeared out of the ceiling before drifting down like a snowflake, becoming solid once she touched the ground. She was tenacious, like a wild predator who refuses to give up on its prey. And this time, she was clad in her magical girl outfit.

"Two new stand users," Elly growled. Her fingers made an audible clenching noise around the handle of her axe. "I'm grateful that the「miracle stone」has blessed me with its powers, but I would be lying if I believed it not to be a nuisance at times."

Sayaka ran behind Madoka, and whispered. "Madoka...we need to call Mami. This girl is crazy."

Any other time, Madoka would have agreed with Sayaka and called Mami in a heartbeat.

But today was different. She was no longer a regular middle school student had Endless Dream by her side.

"Sayaka...stand back," Madoka said, as she stepped forward with her stand following. Sayaka jumped aside once she saw her stand walk past her.

"Wait...are you crazy?" Sayaka said. "You can't fight her!"

"No," Madoka said. Her dark determination flared up. "But my Endless Dream can."

It ran forward and let loose a stream of attacks.

"You fool! I knew you'd try that!" Elly said.

To Madoka's shock, her opponent didn't strike back. Rather, Quiet Riot plunged its hand into its own user, and she flickered like an image from an old movie projector, becoming a transparent outline of her former self. Each of Endless Dream's fists vanished past its target's skin, hitting what felt like empty air instead of an actual body. Only her feet remained in focus, remaining solid to anchor her and prevent her from dropping beneath the house like what happened to Madoka.

"You can't hit me now!" Elly said. Quiet Riot suddenly reached out and grabbed Endless Dream's fist, keeping it stuck inside its ghost-like user. Then it used its power to grab onto the stand's wrist bone again, and Madoka could feel it. "And now I have you trapped! Have a taste of my「Alta Tensione」!"

The axe in her grip began to shine with serpentine streaks of lightning, which traveled up the pommel and into Elly's body. Dispersing itself, to Madoka's horror, across her own Quiet Riot and towards Endless Dream, and its exposed bone.

She was going to have her own bones fried.

"This is when my Quiet Riot is the strongest!" Elly shouted. "When used in tandem with my lightning magic...I can fry an opponent's innards! Directly! And with your stand's fist immobilized inside my body, you can't use that little probability-altering trick you used earlier to save yourself!"

The electricity made Madoka's hair stand on the back of her hand. She began to feel a stinging heat as Elly's attack began to work itself up Endless Dream's arm. The sleeve of her uniform began to catch flame.

"Madoka!" Sayaka yelled, running towards her. "Let go! That electricity is going to fry you!"

But Madoka didn't let go. She remained calm and still, despite the threat of being turned into human tempura.

Instead, she just smiled without turning to her friend. "Relax Sayaka. This girl already lost."

Sayaka stopped. Elly paused her goading, and raised an eyebrow towards her. "What? Are you dumb? I'm going to fry you!"

Madoka replied. "You shouldn't have let me reach into your incorporeal self. In doing so you have already sealed your own defeat!"

A stream of light appeared inside Elly. An orb of light, a quantum uncertainty field, wrapped around Endless Dream's fist.

She gulped, then turned around.

She saw herself getting punched. Or rather, she saw a possibility of herself getting punched. Multiple possibilities, every one appearing as a hologram of sorts, of her flesh being marked by craters that were obviously the markings of a fist that had yet to land, but in another reality did. Her face stretched in shock upon seeing the faces of her other possibilities twisted in pain, some with cheeks flattened by invisible knuckles.

"Ah...crap…" Elly whispered. The uncertainty field retracted, and reality settled back in onto one possibility. That of Elly getting the crap beaten out of her.

 _ **"WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI~!"**_

All the windows broke at once, and the front of the house was destroyed in a stream of black smoke and wood as Elly crashed through the debris and landed out in the street beyond.

When the dust settled, Madoka calmly walked out of the house, making her way around the splinters that was all that remained of the door. She had expected to be nervous, or frightened out of her wits, like how she reacted when she and Sayaka first became trapped in a witch barrier before Mami came to rescue them. Instead, she felt unusually calm, like she had put on a fresh pair of undies on New Year's Day.

Elly on the other hand was looking worse for wear. Her magical girl clothes vanished and her school uniform were ripped in places and burnt in others. The neatness of her twintails were ruined, with coarse, crooked strands sticking out of them like hay. She was slumped to the ground, not unconscious or dead, but staring in panicking horror as Madoka walked towards her.

"Crap..I'm out of energy...I'm…"

Madoka's shadow fell across her and silenced her. And Endless Dream floated behind, causing Elly's eyes to go completely wide, her body shivering.

"H-Hey hey hey hold on here now," Elly said. She waved her hands around. "Let's not get too hasty here. I realize I was in the wrong and got too greedy! A character flaw! You can't blame me for that right?"

Elly gulped, and nervously tried to smile. Madoka said nothing. Her silence caused Elly to shake.

"You can take all the grief seeds in there! Just-"

"Quiet you," Madoka said. And Elly immediately obliged as she raised three fingers. "I'm going to ask you「three questions」, and if I find those answers「satisfactory」then I will let you go."

"Y-Yes!" Elly stuttered. "Of course!"

"First question. What is your real name? And I'm not talking about your「handle name」."

"Eri! Eri Takasu!"

"Good. Second question. What is that「miracle stone」and how do they give stands?"

"Uh...doesn't that count as two questions?"

Endless Dream cracked its knuckles. Elly, or rather Eri, yelped.

"I don't know! The stones have a weird ability to give whoever is worthy this new ability, that isn't a magical girl ability! They're called stands! And the stone can even turn witches back into magical girls! All I know of the stands is that they resemble the girl's former witch, or their familiars in some way shape or form."

"Magical girls turn into witches?" Madoka said. "I still find that ridiculous. Elaborate. And this doesn't count as the third question." She was breaking her own decree but she didn't give a damn. Not when Eri was willing to comply.

"They do! Mami Tomoe probably didn't tell you two because she has yet to find out herself! But it's the truth! As I said, Kyubey is a liar! I swear on my life that it is the truth!"

Madoka eyed Eri. She looked terrified enough to be incapable of lying, like when a bad guy is captured by an action hero in a movie, and the bad guy can't help but spill the beans for he is too frightened of the hero or his torture methods.

"Alright, I believe you," Madoka said. That was a lot of information to take in, but she glad she heard it. Who knows what would happen if her and Sayaka became magical girls only to have the nasty surprise that they will turn to witches sprung on them later down the line? She didn't blame Mami for not telling them, for she doubted the upperclassmen knew.

"Speaking of Tomoe-san," Madoka said. "You mentioned her earlier. What do you know about Mami? And what of the「witch」possessing her?"

Eri gulped. "All I know is I heard from some other magical girls that Tomoe has locked herself in her apartment after coming into contact with a white canister she found with a parachute attached, stuck in one of the bushes near her home. I wasn't there myself, but it had to be another rock, and the witch has to be a stand! The story just fits perfectly."

Another gulp. Followed by an insincere smile. "Y-You heard all you wanted to hear right? That was more than three questions after all. So you're going to let me go?"

"Yes," Madoka said, then wagged her finger. "But only if you promise me you'll never do bad things ever again."

Elly nodded quickly, then ran off as fast as she can away from the house, screaming the entire way. Her run was almost cartoonish, and Madoka had a feeling in her gut that she won't be trying to attack her or Sayaka, or anyone she knew, ever again.

"Holy crap."

Madoka turned around and saw Sayaka standing in the doorway, giving her the same look she gave Mami when she first transformed and used her magical powers to defeat a witch. A look of awe and wonder.

"Ah!" Madoka quickly made Endless Dream vanish. She didn't want Sayaka freaking out any more than she is most likely going to.

"Incredible!" Sayaka said, running to her. "You're a magical girl! Why didn't you tell me?"

Madoka blinked. "What?"

"That witch. You can control it like...like...like some sort of punch ghost!"

A punchghost. Only Sayaka could come up with a name so silly.

"I'm not a magical girl. Do you see me with a costume on like Tomoe-san?"

"Oh right...then you must be some sort of witch beastmaster or a superhero or something! Because you have powers!" Sayaka beamed. Madoka could see twinkles in her blue eyes. "You gotta tell me how you got them."

Madoka wasn't sure herself. But if what Elly said was true, then it all had to do with the thing in the canister that prickled her.

And if there were more canisters out there, then there was no telling how many of these people with stand abilities were running around in Mitakihara. The thought sent a chill down her spine, for if there were more Quiet Riots and Endless Dreams out there, then not even a magical girl would be prepared against them. Her wrist still throbbed from where Elly's stand had grabbed her bone.

"Hey Sayaka," Madoka whispered.

"Yeah?"

"You feeling like ditching school entirely today?"

"Well…" Sayaka glanced at her, then back at the house, then to her again. "Considering all that's happened, I don't think I can concentrate in class even if I tried."

"Good. Because we're going to pay a visit to Mami. But not before we take that canister in the house."

"That old thing?" Sayaka said. "Why?"

"Just a hunch," Madoka said, as her gaze went to the sun hanging overhead, spilling its rays on the cotton shaped clouds crowding the clear blue skies above.

* * *

 **Mitakihara Train Station**

The rays of sunlight from the skies above were obscured by the canopy of the train station.

Koich Hirose stepped out and was impressed by the scale of Mitakihara and its sprawling, heavily industrialized streets which dwarfed Morioh by miles. Still, he did not know why Jotaro asked him to visit the town. Heck, he was still questioning Jotaro's decision to send him to Italy to track down the illegitimate son of the vampire he killed when he could have sent Josuke, or a stand user who actually worked for the SPW foundation. After all, Jotaro couldn't be the only one, could he?

Not that it'd matter. As usual, he couldn't bring himself to say no to the six-foot-five marine biologist, who was built like a character straight out of Tetsuo Hara's classic martial arts manga Hokuto no Ken.

Koichi sighed and grabbed ahold of his rolling carry on luggage. As he got of the train, wearing a white version of his high school student uniform, he stepped out and bumped into someone's knees by accident, having lost himself in his thoughts.

"Ah! Pardon me...I didn't see where I was going…" Koichi said. He did a bow and lifted his head up past the stranger's knee to see his face.

Only to find out it wasn't a stranger he bumped into, but a person he knew well. Perhaps too well for his own comfort.

"Oh. Didn't expect to see you here Koichi-kun."

Rohan Kishibe, the famous and eccentric mangaka, held a map in his hands and wore a backpack. He looked almost like a regular tourist, if it wasn't for his expensive gucci brand clothing and his recognizable green headband and earrings shaped like pen tips.

"Rohan! What are you doing here!"

"What, I can't just be coincidentally in the same town as you? This is a free country Koichi…" A look of annoyance was written across Rohan's face.

"No...no...that's not what I-"

Rohan rudely cut him off. "Well...if you must know, I'm here to do research for my manga."

"Research?" Koichi said. "What does this town have that others don't?"

A sly look came across Rohan's face. He scanned the crowds gathering at the station, then brought Koichi close to whisper in his ear. He had to kneel to do so, talking to Koichi like a child. He was still as tall as one despite being around nineteen years of age "I heard「rumors」about this place.「Interesting」rumors to say the least."

"Rumors? About what?"

"Rumors...that there are「brightly costumed warriors with magic powers」that do battle with「scary monsters」that lurk in the shadows of this town, their existence hidden from the general populace.

Koichi chuckled, earning a glare from Rohan. "What's so funny?"

"Kishibe-san, that sounds like something straight out of Sailor Moon."

"Which is perfect!" Rohan said, standing back up and pointing towards the sky. "What better inspiration for a mangaka? I'm trying to diversify into the mahou shoujo genre anyway with 「Purple Bright Girl」"

Rohan hasn't changed a bit in the ten years since their adventures in Morioh. He was still as eccentric as ever, and always looking for his next source of inspiration. Koichi was just glad he gave up his habit of using his stand to pillage people of their memories.

"Now that I've given you an answer Koichi, how about telling me why you're here?"

"Huh?" Koichi blinked. "Oh...I don't know.

Rohan scoffed. "Don't tell me you went on the wrong train. And if you're lying, keep in mind I can use my Heaven's Door anytime…"

"Hey! That's not necessary! I've been sent here by Jotaro, but he told me to not speak a word to anyone until I get to my hotel…"

He should've known reasoning with Rohan was pointless. One second he was standing up, the next a small white skinned figure with a hollow top hat appeared out of the mangaka and tapped him lightly on the forehead. He could feel the skin peel off his face, turning into the pages of a book filled with text and images that contained the sum of all his memories and thoughts. His legs lost their strength and he crumpled to the floor.

"Rohan! What the hell are you doing!"

"Oh…" Rohan ignored Koichi's frantic screaming. "I see...not even Jotaro has told you yet."

The gall of the guy was amazing. Using his stand on him was one thing, but doing in public was another.

"Rohan! There's people around!"  
"Oh relax, they didn't see anything."

The next second, Koichi's face was back to normal and he quickly stood up, fighting the urge to use Echoes Act 3 on Rohan.

"I can't believe you! Why would you do that!" Koichi yelled, beating his hands in the air.

"Hey, no need to raise your voice." Rohan calmly said, cupping his ears with his palms to block out Koichi's yelling. "Since I gave you the reasons why I'm here, and your answer was unsatisfactory, I did you a favor by evening out the trade and making it fair."

Koichi growled.

"Okay fine, I'm sorry," Rohan said. He didn't sound too sincere. "Well...I've got to run Koichi-kun. You want to share a taxi?"

Koichi signed. He wished he could just leave the station and have nothing to do with Rohan, but with Rohan knowing they were in the same town, he wasn't going to leave him alone. It had been that way in Morioh and there's no reason to suspect that'll change in Mitakihara.

"Sure," Koichi answered and walked with the mangaka towards one of the cabs outside the station.

As they walked, Koichi realized having Rohan around wasn't an entirely bad thing. He was a powerful ally, and Koichi could not shake the feeling that he was going to need his help in whatever awaits them in the unassuming town.

Jotaro asked him to go this particular city for a reason, and although Mitakihara may seem peaceful on the outside, Koichi knew better.

Even the most unassuming towns could have something dangerous hiding inside it.

* * *

 **Later at night**

Dr. Feelgood left her office in Mitakihara General Hospital late that day. Running into that pink haired brat in the morning stalled her more than she should have, though she was also partially to blame for her tardiness of one minute.

She had found prey that morning and couldn't resist, and cleaning up after her feeding had taken time.

Not that it'd matter now. What was done was done.

She scanned the parking lot, which was dark and had very few cars, making it easy to search out her own car with rows of empty spaces around it.

When she reached her sedan, the parking lot began to morph. The walls dissolved, the cars vanished, even hers. Her key hit nothing.

The world changed into a vibrant, surreal landscape seemingly from the mind of a child. A cacophony of songs and noises filled the air, as horrid images flickered around her. Images of oversized of candy that flew around as if they were alive.

She had walked into a witch's barrier.

Most people would have been afraid, but not Dr. Feelgood. A witch meant a magical girl. And a magical girl meant she found her supper for the night.

But to lure a lamb, she had to pretend she wasn't a wolf. So she fell on her back, and began to act like the frightened, shy, timid person her coworkers thought she was. She let out a scream.

"Eek! What is going on!" Dr. Feelgood shouted.

The witch appeared. A hideously silly looking thing that resembled a wad of cotton candy with a mouth filled with sharp teeth, connected to an ice cream cone with claws. Little pieces of candy with eyes, its familiars, circled their queen.

"Waaah! Monster!" Dr. Feelgood screamed, purposefully hamming it up. She usually waits until she has to defend herself to see if any magical girl would come. If that took too long, she'll have to kill the witch and look for sustenance elsewhere.

A blast of yellow energy annihilated some of the familiars. Dr. Feelgood secretly smiled to herself.

A magical girl, probably around fourteen or fifteen years of age, appeared. Clad in a outfit that was one part dress, one part military fatigues with an embroidered version of a soldier's helmet that sprouted wings on the side and a soul gem in the middle, the girl brandished an unwieldy gatling gun, colored pink and with heart-shaped gems on the side of the barrel. She fired, and bursts of fiery yellow bullets destroyed the familiars, and tore out chunks out of the witch's side.

When the smoke cleared, the witch and its friends were reduced to lumpy scraps of otherworldly meat. The girl blew off the smoke off her magic gun and then smiled to herself.

The brat was cocky, and Dr. Feelgood tried to hide her irritation at that. The incubator wasn't picking them like it used to.

She picked herself up and approached the girl, faking the weakness in her knees to pretend she was frightened.

"Whew...thank you…" She spoke with a stutter, moved with body language that implied shaky nerves. She purposely played with her glasses, to make it seem they had been on the urge of falling. She didn't even need the damn things anyway, but they were perfect for hiding her true nature.

The girl turned to her. She had that look someone gives when they didn't really care but pretended to so they don't appear as complete assholes.

"Eh...no problem. It's what I do-"

The girl was cut off as Dr. Feelgood plunged her pale, pianist fingers into her throat. She choked, her eyes going wide in horror.

"Thank you...for「your blood」," Dr. Feelgood flashed a fang as she grinned. Her eyes opened and narrowed, flashing like those of a wolf that caught its lamb.

"W-What are you…" The girl said weakly, as the very life from her was drained into the good doctor's fingers. She tried to bring her gun around but Dr. Feelgood was too quick. And too strong. She broke the girl's arm with one strike, without even transforming into a magical girl herself, causing a bloodcurdling scream to echo throughout the barrier.

The gun disappeared, and a white fragment of bone was visible through the girl's elbow.

Magical girls were strong, but vampires were stronger. Dr. Feelgood should know; she had been both, and now was something more.

"Iron Maiden," Dr. Feelgood whispered, and a dark shape moved out of her own and smashed the gem in the middle of the girl's helmet with a metallic, clockwork hand, tucked into a purple sleeve with a round gem placed around the white frilly cuffs.

The girl went limp, her eyes going blank from the lack of life behind them. Her magical girl vanished, exposing the school uniform she had beneath. Her soul left the world the moment the gem was broken, but her blood remained. And that's all Dr. Feelgood wanted.

The blood tasted better than the finest wine, even if she wasn't using her tongue to taste it. She took her time draining the girl, who began to thin out, her skin beginning to stretch tight across the bones.

Only when the girl was completely drained, reduced to a dry husk of a corpse, did Dr. Feelgood remove her fingers. She licked the blood dripping from her fingertips.

"Hmmm...well...I guess I don't need to go hunt for supper anymore." Dr. Feelgood smiled.

A shadow fell upon her. She didn't need to turn around to know the witch was still alive. Heavily injured, but still bearing its fangs towards her.

It no longer saw her as prey, and showed visible aggression and fear. It hissed, sensing the true danger was from her and not the brat that she had just drained so easily. Like a lion that just realized there was a tyrannosaurus rex was in its vicinity.

It lunged, probably out of pure instinct, to eliminate the threat before it. The rival predator on its territory.

A foolish gesture, as Iron Maiden popped out of its user once again.

It sprung out of the shadows and its form was made bare. The witch saw it, for witches were only malformed stands. Dr. Feelgood learned that the hard way.

There was hints of the old Walpurgisnacht inside Iron Maiden, such as a porcelain-white head with a completely flat scalp as if it had been sliced off, a wide mouthed grin that was its only facial feature, and a purple frilly dress seemingly from the Victorian-era. The transparent veil taped to the sides of its monstrous, cone shaped horns fluttered in the wind.

But as much as it resembled Walpurgisnacht, it was not the ultimate witch whose infamy struck fear in magical girls everywhere. It was degrees smaller, only a head taller than Dr. Feelgood and several times smaller than the witch growling at both of them. It had a more defined humanoid and mechanical shape which included sets of gear-wrapped legs and silver wires jutting out of its pale neck and the bottoms of its cheeks.

It was also more dangerous than Walpurgisnacht could ever be, with a unique ability that made it more valuable in its user's eyes than picking up buildings, calling forth familiars, and breathing fire put together.

The witch roared at the stand, unable to know what to make of it. Iron Maiden only grinned in turn, right as the witch lunged.

With a single downward strike, Iron Maiden cleaved the witch in half with its monstrous strength. Then vanished once the creature was dead and the barrier began to disintegrate into nothingness.

Dr. Feelgood pushed up her glasses, then calmly walked to her car. She saw a reflection in the mirror of her car's windows, but not hers. It was Iron Maiden's, its porcelain pale and eyeless face smiling back at her. It always smiled.

Dr. Feelgood smiled back. "What a beautiful Mitakihara…"

A gurgle from behind startled her. Dr. Feelgood turned back and saw that the girl's body wasn't consumed by the barrier when it vanished.  
Worse, it was still moving. The girl was becoming a zombie, her red eyes and steadily sharpening teeth was proof of that.

That was the thing about zombies; they didn't need a soul.

"Oh bollocks," Dr. Feelgood said. Luckily she knew how to cover her tracks by now, how to hide her true nature from the eyes of the townspeople.

The incubator may have granted her wish of being immune to sunlight centuries ago, but that courtesy did not extend to the zombies she creates.

She reached into her coat pocket and fished out the ultraviolet flashlight she had with her at all times. Her necklace, containing a locket that housed a single shred of the magic rock that turned her from the most infamous witch in history to the vampire magical girl she was before, dangled on her arm as she moved.

She turned on the flashlight, and the zombie girl howled in agony as her body turned into charred dust, along with the evidence of the monster that had taken roost in in Mitakihara.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Stand Name** : Endless Dream

 **User** : Madoka Kaname

 **Namesake** : Endless Dream (Yes song)

 **Formerly** : Kriemhild Gretchen

 **Stats** :

Destructive Power - A

Speed - A

Range - D

Durability - B

Precision - B

Development Potential - A

 **Abilities** :

Fists of Uncertainty:  The stand's fists can produce a quantum uncertainty field that causes any object that touches it to enter a quantum state - where all of its possibilities occur at once. When the uncertainty field collapses, the possibilities will merge together and only one possibility will become reality. For example, if the stand touches an opponent, it can make all the possibilities of the opponent visible, then collapse all possibilities into one where the opponent gets injured by an attack, regardless if the attack actually hit the opponent earlier or not. As long as the target touches the stand's uncertainty field in any wall, they will fall into its effects, though the field itself is limited to the areas around the stand's fist.

The stand cannot use the uncertainty field on itself or its user.


	4. Spiders from Mars part 1

**Sorry for not updating for two or so weeks. I had to take care of some administrative stuff at work, and things got busier than expected. Plus I spent time editing the previous chapters, up to the point where I gave Endless Dream an entirely new ability since creating miniature planets wasn't versatile or unique enough in my opinion. Anyways, thanks for waiting.**

 **-beef**

* * *

 **Chapter Four - Patricia's Spiders from Mars Part 1**

When Koichi finally reached his hotel room, he breathed a sigh of relief and stretched. But he had no time to relax, to even unpack.

He had business to attend to. He immediately fished his smartphone out of his pants pocket and speed-dialed Jotaro Kujo's number.

The phone's digital ringing sounded for a while, before Jotaro picked up.

" _Jotaro Kujo speaking._ "

Koichi instantly recognized Jotaro's voice, of how it always carried a calm, gruff and serious tone that bordered on the deadpan.

"Jotaro-san! It's me!" Koichi said.

" _Oh. It's you Koichi. I take it you've made it to the hotel?_ "

"Yes Jotaro-san. I just got off the train a few minutes ago and recently arrived in Mitakihara Grand Hotel. You're not gonna believe this, but I ran into Rohan Kishi-"

Jotaro cut him off. " _Rohan? Good. You'll need his help._ "

"Eh?" Koich said.

" _I need you to go on a scavenger hunt across_ _Mitakihara, Koichi._ "

"A scavenger hunt?" Koich pouted. He wanted to hide the disappointment in his voice, and fought the urge to sound irritated in front of Jotaro. "Um...Jotaro-san. You called me all the way out in Mitakihara for a simple scavenger hunt?"

There was a pause on Jotaro's end, and Koich was afraid for a moment he had said something that offended him. Then again, if Jotaro was offended, he probably wouldn't show it. His face was chiseled like a statue and emoted like one.

" _This isn't a simple scavenger hunt Koichi. The Speedwagon Foundation...ran into an accident in the town._ "

"An...accident?" Koichi whispered.

" _Yes. The details aren't clear at the moment, but the only thing we are certain of is that we lost a few valuable items that belong to us_."

"Valuable...how valuable?"

Another pause. Then a rumbling came through the hotel room. Koichi waited with baited breath to hear Jotaro's answer.

" _I'll just go ahead and say it. We've lost six canisters...each containing a fragment of the Greenland meteorite._ "

"Eh? A meteorite from Greenland?" Koichi's brow became raised. He thought it was going to be another incident involving the stand arrows, not a piece of rock from a country he's never been to. "Why's that important?"

" _Ah...I forgot. You know about the arrow...but don't know where they came from._ "

The words sunk into Koichi's mind. He connected the dots, and his heart thumped at the sudden realization of what Jotaro had just said.

"J-Jotaro...you don't mean…"

" _Looks like you've figured it out without me needing to tell you. And the answer is yes Koichi. The canisters I've asked for you to find...each contain a piece of the meteorite from which the stand arrows were made._ "

"And they're here...in Mitakihara?" Koichi said. He did his best to keep composed. Not an easy feet given the heavy news he had received.

" _Yes...and I don't need to tell you what would happen if a person with_ 「 _stand potential_ 」 _comes across one of the canisters and decides to touch whatever was inside._ "

Koichi gulped. He now knew Jotaro called him to Mitakihara to prevent it from becoming another Morioh. A city filled with newly born stand users could easily spell trouble, since the arrow discriminated only on potential and not on whether the person was good or bad.

Another killer with unnatural powers, another Yoshikage Kira, could very well rise from the bowels of the peaceful town.

Or perhaps...and Koichi shuddered at this thought...the canisters were already discovered, and Mitakihara already had its own Kira. One with a stand that rivaled Killer Queen, or perhaps, and this was the truly terrifying part, even more deadly.

He had no time to lose.

"Jotaro-san...you have my word. I will do all within my power to retrieve the canisters. I will begin the search immediately, and I'll ask Rohan for help. I see no reason for him to disagree."

" _Good. I wish I could help, but I'm still in Florida dealing with matters. Contact me whenever you need to, and best of luck._ " A pause. " _And be careful. Who knows what kind of stands may be out there right now._ "

 _You don't need to tell me that Jotaro, I already know_. Koichi hanged up, and he went out the door without so much as unzipping his luggage.

* * *

 **Around the same time when Madoka Kaname was dealing with Eri Takasu…**

"As if I care," Kyoko Sakura murmured to herself. But deep down, the red-haired magical girl felt otherwise. After all that she's been through, she just could not shake the thoughts of her former mentor and friend from her mind, no matter how much she wanted to purge those memories.

Rumors that Mami Tomoe had been possessed by a witch was the reason why she bothered to go to Mitakihara, her reasoning being that the territory was now hers for the taking.

"Pffft...possessed by a witch," Kyoko said. "As if that's even possible. She probably lost her guts to fight as a magical girl should-"

Her soul gem began to glow, telling her there was a witch nearby. Just what she needed, a distraction from her conflicting thoughts. She smiled, a single noticeable fang poking through her upper lip.

It was time to go hunting. She flicked her long ponytail. She went through her transformation, her civilian outfit consisting of a jacket and shorts was promptly replaced by a red dress as she called out her gem. She gripped the spear that suddenly appeared in her grasp and ran off to confront the witch.

She had found it under an underpassand was a weak one, offering little thrill or sport as Kuoko effortlessly struck it down with her deadly, segmented spear. The bout never made it past three seconds. Still, she couldn't complain. The grief seed it dropped was in her hand, and served as a fitting consolidation of her claiming Mami's territory.

But the mood was soured when another magical girl came hopping down from the bridge above.

Her magical girl uniform resembled a black, fancified sailor fuku outfit, making her resemble an emo Sailor Moon, her soul gem being in the middle of her collar. Her legs and her forearms were covered in thigh-high boots and gloves respectively, each made of cross-hatching thread that was meant to approximate the look and feel of spider webs, which also applied to her poofy skirt that made the modest shorts she wore underneath partially visible. She had glasses on, and her black hair was done in a way that gave off arachnid vibes, with her front bangs resembling a spider's fangs, and her eight ponytails tied and bent to have a passing similarity to the legs of a spider. Her only weapon wasn't something like a sword or a musket, but something as silly as its wielder; a yo-yo, with a symbol on its sides that resembled a spider stored inside a web.

She glanced nervously around, then turned to Kyoko. She seemed very fidgety for a person with magical powers. Her voice shook when she spoke.

"H-Hey...wasn't there a witch here? I could've sworn I sensed a witch…"

Kyoko rolled her eyes. The moment the girl opened her mouth to speak with that nasally voice of hers, she was already irritated. "Yes there was, but I killed it."

"Huh!?" The girl's black eyes enlarged behind her glasses. "What...what do you mean

"What? Are ya hard of hearin'? Did I damn stutter?" Kyoko growled. "I killed the witch before you got here."

The girl looked like she's been slapped in the face with a wet fish. Her eyes hovered to the seed in Kyoko's hand. The latter didn't like that, and she quickly curled her fist to hide the seed from the newcomer's greedy gaze.

But it was too late. The girl knew she had the seed, and she may have to fight her for it.

 _Tch. Great. Just what I need._ Kyoko tightened her grip on her spear. She hoped one of her own would provide a more thrilling fight than the witch.

To her surprise, the girl went down on her knees and began to wail and beg.

"Please! I need that seed! I need it to complete my collection! I won't be able to sleep soundly tonight if my collection is incomplete!"

"Incomplete?" Kyoko said. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The girl blinked, then she said in a rushed voice. "Well...ever since I was five years old, I had the undesirable urge to collect everything. First it was stamps, then it was lollipop flavors…"

"Hey hey hey!" Kyoko shouted. "I don't need to hear your life story! You're really damn annoying! And I'm not giving you the seed you idiot."

"Huh?" The girl then brought out a wallet. "Wait! I'll pay you!"

Kyoko was taken aback. This was the first time another magical girl offered to pay for a grief seed in money. "Eh? Are you for real?"

"Yes!" The girl said. "I'll give you thirty thousand yen for that!"

Kyoko nearly choked. "Thirty thousand yen!"

"I can't get it now...but I can get it to you later!" The girl said. "But I need the seed!"

Kyoko considered giving the seed, especially when seeds were easy to come by for powerful enough magical girls. Thirty thousand yen was a great deal in that regard, but then she realized the she needed no money. Of course, anything she needed she would simply take as she always would have.

Plus, the girl was giving her the creeps, and she began to suspect her to have not just a few screws loose, but all of them. She wasn't about to give a crazy person what she worked for.

"No, forget it," Kyoko said. "I'm not giving up this seed for money. And you should shove off."

"Fine...fifty thousand-" The girl said.

"You don't understand. I don't need your money, so again...you should shove off." Kyoko spat out, before she found herself changing her mind.

"Wha-" The girl became flabbergasted. "Then...then...you really aren't giving me the seed."

"Geez, how many times to do I have to tell you?" Kyoko said, rubbing her forehead. "No means no. This seed ain't yours! Now go away, you are really starting to annoy me."

The girl's expression and body language changed. She slowly stood up in silence, her brows furrowed, her eyes narrowed and ferocious. A purple aura began to wrap around her.

"Then I guess I have no choice...I will defeat you and take that seed for my-"

Kyoko clocked her to shut her up. She punched a tooth out and the girl groaned, wide-eyed and slumped back to the ground. She clutched her jaw in pain.

"Talk is cheap," Kyoko mocked. "If you're gonna take the seed from me, then do it instead of say it! But regardless, keep on dreaming if you think you can ever take me on."

She walked away, leaving the girl, but stopped when she noticed a box that had been dropped beside her.

It was a small chestbox of sorts, its lid open to reveal its contents.

It was filled with grief seeds. And to Kyoko's amazement, none of them were used. They were all filled with cleansing energy.

Her eyes began to gleam with joy and she swiped one while the girl she punched was still reeling from her blow. The latter didn't notice, her back turned, her face still tucked into her hands, nursing where she was slugged.

"You...touched my collection..."

The girl stood up, the purple aura returning. She tilted her head back towards Kyoko, glaring at her. Her lip was bleeding.

"The psychiatrists said I have a serious problem with hoarding and collecting...called me a「major kleptomaniac」" The girl hissed. "And even Kyubey-san said I had a problem...he warned me several times that I should use the seeds before it is too late, but I didn't listen."

Kyoko looked up from the box. "What!? You've never used them? Not a single one? What for you idiot!"

The girl smiled, her blood-stained teeth making her grin more creepy than it should have. Kyoko felt a shiver down her back. "I didn't listen of course...after all, a comic book collector wouldn't take the comic right out of the package right? And a car collector wouldn't drive one of his or her own cars. I didn't use the seeds...right up to the point where my soul gem completely blackened."

She whirled around, and Kyoko found herself taking a step back. She released the yo-yo, letting it swing around her finger like a pendulum. "But it doesn't matter now...because I'm no longer a regular magical girl...I can collect as much seeds as I want without fear of becoming a witch! And with Eri scared off from her stash, I can finally complete my collection! But I can only complete it if I have that grief seed in your hands!"

"Hey...you're crazy!" Kyoko said. The girl was most definitely crazy, especially the part about becoming a witch. Then she felt a sharp pain on her hand that wrenched the box from her grasp.

"Ouch!" Kyoko shouted. It felt like a syringe had been forced in the flesh that connected her index finger and thumb. She glanced down.

There it was, the biggest bug she had ever seen in her life, and was also concurrently the smallest familiar she had ever seen.

An insect, wearing a black sailor fuku uniform with a red bowtie around the collar had latched onto her hand without her knowing, a needle-like proboscis coming from the eyeless, mechanical grey head tucked inside its collar and jammed deep into Kyoko's skin. It had six arms in total, many of them having five fingers that made them look more like the hands of a human being or mannequin than the sharp legs of a bug.

The color drained from Kyoko's face when she saw it.

"W-What the hell is this thing?"

"It's my「Spider from Mars」...Kyoko Sakura!"

Kyoko's jaw dropped. "How! How do you know my name-"

A part of her mind dissolved into a white spot that ate her thoughts. She drew a blank, and her face laxed, blinking and unable to comprehend what she was thinking about just seconds ago.

"What's the matter Kyoko?" The girl grinned devilishly. "'Forgetting' something?"

"Kyoko?" Kyoko was flummoxed. "Who the hell is Kyoko?"

"Kyoko Sakura, that's your name isn't it? But I don't expect you to remember." The girl asked. Kyoko drew another blank. "My「Spiders from Mars」can suck out any single memory from whatever it sinks its proboscis into...and they all share a hivemind with its user, which is I, Aimi Aozora! Meaning, any memory that they suck out...immediately comes to me!"

"Huh?" Kyoko said. She genuinely had zero clue on what the girl was talking about, on who this Kyoko Sakura person was, and on why she kept referencing David Bowie's backing band during his Ziggy Stardust years. "What the hell are you saying?"

Aimi's eyes gleamed. "Oh my...and it seems you are friends with Mami Tomoe..."

"Huh?" Kyoko said. She felt a faint prickling on her shoulder, and saw another bug. "Ah!"

Another prickling on the calf of her leg. She glanced at her hand and saw a weapon she didn't recognize. "Hey...who's spear is this? Looks kinda cool."

"Mami Tomoe is your dearest friend...but from the memory I plucked from you I can see you two had a falling out that had yet to be patched up," Aimi said.

The yo-yo stopped swinging and sprung back into her open palm. "You see, collecting grief seeds is fun and all, but I found something rarer that is worth even more in collecting. A special type of canister containing a very special rock, that has suddenly appeared all over town.

"Getting them is harder than getting a grief seed, which you can get by merely hunting a witch. But these canisters no doubt have 'stand users' guarding them...the stand users that they first created. I know that is the true for me, and for Eri Takasu. She damn kicked me out with her Quiet Riot when I found out all I wanted to do with the seeds was to collect them and do nothing with them!"

Aimi pointed to Kyoko. "But you're going to help me get one of the canisters...from none other than Mami Tomoe herself! I heard she locked herself away, fearing her stand as a witch! Consider it as payback for giving for punching me so hard earlier!"

Kyoko scoffed. "As if. I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you think I'm going to help you-"

A dark shadow fell over her. Kyoko lifted her head up, and saw millions of spiders clinging to the underside of the bridge. A whole swarm of them, and they descended upon her before she could blink.

"It's no use…「Spiders from Mars」 is invincible." Aimi said. "With them, I can 「collect」 anything I want in this town! Including your「memories」!"

* * *

Madoka knocked on Mami's door. No response. They've been knocking for five minutes straight.

"Maybe we should come back later?" Sayaka said.

Madoka knocked again.

The door opened, and Mami glared at them. There were bags under her eyes, and one of her usually neat drill-shaped blonde twintails could be visibly seen messily draped over her shoulder with coarse hairs sticking out of them.

"Kaname-san...I'm not in the mood to see anyone right now." Mami said. "I'm sorry."

"Wait-" Madoka couldn't get another word out before the door abruptly slammed shut.

"Hey Madoka...maybe we really should come back later," Sayaka said. "She doesn't seem well."

"I...I guess," Madoka murmured. Deep down however, she didn't want to leave. She looked up to Mami ever since she saved them from the witch the first day they met. And in that time since, she had never seen the magical girl act such a way. She looked distraught and exhausted, and had the look of a person who lacked sleep for seventy two hours straight.

If there was something she could do to help…

And Eri's words replayed in her mind. Specifically, the words about how Mami was possessed by a witch.

Could she really be possessed by one? Or is it as Eri says, and she has been possessed by another power? By a power like Endless Dream?

Madoka sighed. Perhaps she can help, but not when Mami didn't want to see them. She was also exhausted from her encounter with Quiet Riot.

Whatever that force, that「dark determination」, was, it had tired her out when it finally subsided and she returned to her regular self. It felt like an out of body experience almost, as if a second, more bestial personality had overwritten her own like some sort of bizarre 21st century schizoid man. The day had put both her and her friends through a lot, and perhaps it was time to take a break to get their bearings straight.

"Yeah, let's go. Perhaps we can talk to Mami later…" Madoka said. She turned to Sayaka. "By the way, the canister is still there with you right?"

"What, this dirty thing?" Sayaka lifted her schoolbag. It was out of shape from having to cram the canister into it. "Why do I have to be the one to carry this."

"Because you brought us into that house," Madoka replied.

"Sheesh, how was I supposed to know there was a crazy magical girl there with one of these...stand things," Sayaka said. "By the way, I still think the name「punchghost」is better."

"If you say so," Madoka said. The two left, not before she took one last, worrisome glance at Mami's apartment door.

* * *

Mami heard the footsteps as the two newly made friends had left. She knew she sounded harsh, and she felt bad driving them away when all she ever wanted was friendship.

However, she wasn't about them to expose Sayaka and Madoka to the witch that was haunting her, that followed her everywhere she went.

The witch that was staring at her right now, with unseen eyes hidden behind a visor with a red and white peppermint colorization. It sat hunched on a Mami's favorite triangular glass tea table in a slack lotus position, its yellow arms trailing to the ground, unrolled into ribbons that looked remarkably like the ones produced by her magic powers. A large circular head-dress encircled its head like a halo. It wore a green dress with black lace sleeves and a smile etched on the pouch across its skirt, its legs covered in alternating yellow and white stripes that evoked images of uniquely colored candy canes.

"What...what are you?" Mami said. She was in her magical girl uniform, with a rifle raised. She knew by now traditional attacks were useless; the bullets simply absorbed into its body. At least that way a stray bullet wouldn't strike her apartment. The last thing she needed was to alert her neighbors and the random passerbyers on the streets who might easily notice a frantic girl firing guns inside her own apartment. In that regard, she was also thankful her aim was good enough to be able to never miss a shot, all of them landing on the strangely humanoid witch sitting on her table with little to no effect, absorbed without damage to her apartment.

"Give me orders," The witch said. Its voice was toneless and robotic, and, as Mami finally took notice, sounded almost like hers if it had been distorted.

"No, I won't give you orders," Mami said. "I want you to die."

The witch tilted its head. Its ribbon arms contracted, and became a regular set of arms wrapped in yellow sleeves.

I can't die," It replied. "I am you. And you are me."

"What...are you my 'persona' or something?" Mami growled.

The witch cocked its head. "I find that highly offensive."

"I don't care," Mami raised her rifle, despite knowing fully well this would be the seven hundredth shot she took that was rendered useless tonight. "I just want you to leave!"

She blinked. And the witch was gone. She let out a deep breath and slumped back against her door, her knees causing her to buckle to the floor.

Whatever the witch was, it was the most peculiar specimen of a witch Mami had ever seen. Only now did she take note that it lacked all the other qualities of a witch. No familiars. No barriers.

And then there was the fact it never tried to attack her even as she fired into it. And it kept referring to her as if she was her master, always begging for orders as if it was her servant, not enemy.

Was it even a witch then? Or was it something else entirely? Something that Kyubey never mentioned before?

Her thoughts went to the canister she found this morning, lying on top of a shrub outside her apartment building's front entrance, and of the rock she scratched herself on by accident that was inside. She knew there was something off about the canister and the rock, and she can't help but see connections with getting scratched by the rock and the witch suddenly appearing.

She walked out of the kitchen and glanced towards the cabinet besides her tea table where she kept the heavy safe that she locked away the canister and its contents in. Perhaps Kyubey could tell her more of the strange phenomena happening to her lately…

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

Mami quickly looked around for signs of the witch. She was relieved when she saw nothing and walked to the door.

A list of possible suspects who could be knocking ran through her mind. It could be any of her neighbors, a wayward delivery man that has found his way to the wrong address, or either Sayaka and Madoka coming back to try their luck again to see her.

When she did open the door, she saw that it was none of the above. Instead, she saw a sight that was ripped out from a nightmare.

"K-Kyoko!" Mami could barely choke out the name of a friend she had thought she would never see again.  
Kyoko Sakura was wrapped in layers of what looked to be thick webbing that shaped a cocoon which hid her body from the neck down, held in place by thin threads that stuck themselves to the edge of the balcony on the floor where Mami's apartment was, along with more thread anchored to the balcony on the upper floor. For lack of a better descriptor, she looked like she was a fly caught in the web of an impossibly large spider.

Mami reached out from her door. She was about to rush out, to grab Kyoko and bring her into the safety of the apartment.

Until she noticed there was something off about the whole scene. A single thought flickered across her mind, preventing her from taking another step forward.

 _Wait a minute...her arms are tied. Then who knocked on the door?_

Mami turned right, and studied her door.

There was a spider on it. A spider wearing a black sailor fuku uniform, and it lifted its syringe-shaped head to point it towards Mami.

"Mami Tomoe...give me your fragment of the stand giving rock...or I will end your existence right now!" The spider spoke, in a distorted mechanical female voice.

"Huh?" Mami gawked.

Rows of shadows fluttered across the door's faint reflections. Mami turned upward to what cast them, and a scream became lodged in her throat.

There wasn't only one spider. There were more of them, crowding on the very top of the door, all staring at her with eyes that glowed bright red underneath the shadow of the balcony.

"What...what on earth!"

The spiders lunged.

And a yellow fist came out of her chest. Along with a familiar voice.

 _ **"TIRORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORO~!"**_

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Thanks Doctor Mono for your comment. I've kept it in the back of my mind while I was making the edits, though I wanted to push forward with the new chapters before I go back and edit more.

As for your concerns regarding why magical girls also have both magic powers and stands, it was a response to an earlier criticism I had from a reader (sorry, but I forgot your name!) who suggested magical girls keep their powers while maintaining stands. I personally thought that was a neat idea, though it was too late at that point to implement it because I was too deep into the story. I didn't want to overshadow magical girl abilities as I did with my last fic, so I took inspiration from SBR, and how the stands compliment the user's natural abilities. Most of the magic will be used in conjunction with stand powers. I know this may not be exactly what you wanted and I can understand how some people prefer stands only, but I feel like this was a way to make it different than my last attempt at a crossover. The "Madoka damsel in distress" also came from another previous criticism a reader gave me, though I do plan on making edits to make her closer to her anime version.

Best,  
Beef


	5. Spiders from Mars part 2

**I'll go ahead and say right off the bat that I didn't plan for this chapter to be delayed for two months. Work got hectic and busy _really_ fast (it's the type of job that doesn't have set "regular" hours, and late nights are the norm) and I basically had very little free time whatsoever. With the free time I had, I re-wrote the chapter several times because I just wasn't happy with it (part of it was probably due with my brain being too exhausted from work to actually think of anything besides sleep).**

 **Again, expect erratic updates. I love writing, but my job is my priority, and I fully expect to be unable to do anything outside of work between January to April. Hope y'all understand.**

* * *

 **Chapter Five - Patricia's Spiders from Mars part 2**

" _ **TIRORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORO~!"**_

It was as if time slowed, and Mami's eyes could follow the witch's fists as they lashed out, despite them being faster than her bullets.

Three of the swarm were instantaneously crushed, bursting into shreds of cloth, energy and flickering images beneath the witch's knuckles. The rest of the swarm dispersed, managing to avoid the witch's barrage of attacks by skittering past the edges of the door as fast as their needle-thin legs would carry them.

"S-H-I-T. I missed most of them." The witch pouted.

It was at this point Mami realized for certain that the creature she had been calling a witch wasn't one. Witches and magical girls are supposed to be mortal enemies, liking each other as much as an antelope would like a hyena. But the thing in front of her had just saved her from those wretched spiders, something a witch would never do.

"What...what are you?" Mami asked, her voice choked to almost a faint whisper. Despite that, the creature heard her, and turned its head.

"「Silk Degrees」" It answered. "I am your stand,「Silk Degrees」. And I am your new「ability」."

"My...new ability?"

A snap ripped through the air. Mami looked to her left, and saw that one of the strings anchoring Kyoko to the upper balcony had snapped.

Mami didn't shout. Her reflexes kicked in before she could utter a word, swiftly moving towards the railing with one leap, sending out ribbons formed from the magic flowing through her gem and into her body.

The rest of the strings snapped, and the unconscious Kyoko began to teeter backwards, moments away from becoming a stain on the ground below as red as her hair.

A single tendril of ribbon ensnared her before she could fall.

But to Mami's shock, it wasn't her ribbon that saved her friend's life. It was that of Silk Degrees, its own arm having extended and split off into multiple, vibrant ribbons that put hers to shame, each colored a translucent gold that sparkled beneath the lights dotting the apartment complex.

Silk Degrees reeled in Kyoko like a fish and gently threw her into Mami's arms. It regarded Mami once, before quickly vanishing in an aura of golden light and causing Mami to gawk and stare at empty air.

 _What on earth is going on?_

As a magical girl, Mami had thought nothing could surprise her anymore, that she had seen it all. But everything from the past few days, from the mysterious rock inside the canister that scratched her, to the sudden appearance of Silk Degrees and the talking spiders wearing sailor uniforms, made her realize there were still things enshrouded by the shadows of Mitakihara that not even she was aware of.

Then there was the series of recent mysterious disappearances, and rumors of magical girls with peculiar abilities that weren't magic…

She could worry about that later.

Grabbing Kyoko, Mami ran through her door and slammed the door shut behind her before any of those spiders had thoughts of coming back. A futile gesture, for she knew a piece of painted wood wasn't going to stop those things, whatever they were.

"Kyoko…"

Mami placed the girl she hasn't seen for years on the couch. She wouldn't have believed that they would meet again, and certainly not under such bizarre circumstances. She had many questions, none of them could be answered with Kyoko unconscious and with no one else to ask.

For the moment, that didn't matter, and she smiled. She was just glad her friend was safe.

A whisper came from behind.

" _Ku ku ku...thanks for letting me in…"_

Mami went pale, her lips trembling. The voice sounded close, so close it was as if something was just inches behind the nape of her neck. But she couldn't feel the heat of a living breath.

She turned around, and a spider dangling right in front of her face. Its arms were crossed, its legs sprouting what looked like ice skates, their blades sparkling under the light of her apartment's ceiling lights. With the skates, the arachnid stood on a single string, a piece of barely visible thread that brought to mind the strand of a spider's web.

" _From the memories I've collected from that redhaired brat..._ _I knew you couldn't abandon Kyoko Sakura...and I knew you'd try to bring her into your apartment. So I thought I hitched a ride!"_

Mami bit her lip.

A musket appeared in her hands and she swung the butt of the weapon around like an axe. Its stock was only inches away from hitting the spider, before something tugged back and stopped it from reaching its mark.

Mami's eyes wide in surprise as she saw what snagged her rifle. Rows of thread had ensnared the stock, each thread delicate-looking like the strings of a violin and containing enough tensile strength to hold back a swing backed by the enhanced strength of a magical girl.

Mami glanced over her shoulder. The source of the strings was none other than the cocoon wrapped around Kyoko, coming off it like the tendrils of a jellyfish.

" _These are my magical strings...my_ 「Ragno di Vetro」. _They are strong enough to halt a truck, to bind a witch. And I can control them in any shape I want!"_

The spider pressed down on the string with one of its skates.

" _But...ever since getting_ 「Spiders from Mars」, _I've figured out another use for them!"_

Mami summoned out another rifle and raised it towards the spider. She fired, and the string snapped.

No, not snapped. It moved on its own, coiling back like a snake and then lashing out, ensnaring the head of the rifle.

Before Mami could release the weapon, the spider sped down the string towards her, its skates sending off sparks as it moved with a speed that was even faster than Silk Degree's fists.

" _My stand can ride along my magic string...like the rails of a Shinkasen bullet train! Nothing in this world can match the speed of my stand on my string!_ "

There was nothing Mami could do to avoid the spider. It leapt right towards her face before she could so much as blink.

Then, something strange happened.

Time really _did_ slow down this time. And not only that, but the world began to multiply itself in front of Mami's eyes.

She blinked and reopened her eyes, thinking she was drowning in some sort of surreal nightmare that she would wake up from any second. However, she wasn't dreaming.

The spider was moving slowly, but there was many of them heading towards her in multiple iterations of her apartment. It was as if her eyes had sprouted dozens of other eyes, and she was seeing everything through them at once.

Yet she wasn't dizzy or disoriented in the slightest. She could focus on the spider in all of her visions as it continued to move at a snail's pace through the air, the swings of its limbs moving in slow motion like a video in reduced playback speed.

She leapt out of the way, kicking off into the air. The spider plopped onto the ground, sinking its syringe into the tiles of her floor.

Mami was in disbelief. She was floating in the air.

No not floating. She could feel herself steadily descending, but wasn't doing so fast enough. She was seeing _everything_ in slow motion, and not just the spider.

And then she found out why.

A second arm was coming out of hers. It was Silk Degree's arm, and it had sprouted forth one of its golden ribbons, one end having broken off into smaller wiry segments that brought to mind the endings of a nerve like those illustrated in a textbook.

One of the segments was wrapped around a small floating, buzzing shape.

It was a fly, its thorax ensnared by the ribbon. Waves of energy flowed down from the fly through the ribbon, traversing across it like a brain impulse, feeding into the end wrapped around Mami's wrist.

 _What...what is this? What is going on?_

Silk Degree's voice echoed in her mind. A whisper inside her own mind.

" _To transfer_ 「senses」 _between the things attached to the ends of my ribbon...that is my ability ..._ "

The fly snapped away from the ribbon, and time began to flow regularly again. Her vision merged back into one single image, returning to normal as she landed on her feet, dazed and entirely unsure of what had just happened.

"Don't tell me…" Mami whispered to herself as she stared at her hands, the ribbon and Silk Degrees vanishing. "...that I was looking through the eyes of a fly!"

She wanted to be reviled, but having the sight of a fly was the only thing that could have allowed her avoid Spiders from Mars. As disgusting as they were, she could appreciate the abilities of the tiny insects, who could see the world in slow motion, their reflexes faster than any magical girl's.

It was a strange ability, something she wasn't used to, though she'd be lying if she said she didn't find it useful in tight situations, like the one she was in right now.

" _Impossible!_ " The bark came from the spider. Mami turned to it as it had anchored itself to the ceiling with another strand of string. Its arms were crossed.

" _I don't understand how you were able to leap out of the way...but it certainly isn't because of your magic! Otherwise I would have known about it from that redheaded brat's memories! This must be your_ 「stand ability」!"

The spider rode the string, which lashed out at her. Silk Degrees materialized and lashed out with its fists.

" _ **TIRORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORO~!"**_

The string bent at angles, twisting around the stand's strikes and avoiding them entirely. The spider skid across the string as it moved, matching its boast of superior swiftness.

" _Ha! You're pitiful stand moves like a damn snail!-"_

The spider flew past Silk Degrees and landed right on its user's cheek. Mami's throat went dry.

" _Now I'll suck out your memories...and learn where you're hiding that damn canister!_ "

Before she could even let out a whimper, the spider dug its syringe into her cheek.

She could feel the pain, could feel the jolt it sent through her nerves. But the spider violently retracting its syringe was even more painful.

It fell back, yanked out by a golden striated ribbon that had stuck to its ankle. Mami had enough of an idea of what was going on to realize Silk Degrees's punches were not meant to crush the creature. It had launched out a ribbon formed from its forearm right in the path of the otherworldly arachnid's trajectory.

She instinctively knew because that's what she thought of doing. Silk Degrees was reacting to her own thoughts, obeying her mental commands like a second body.

The ribbon was still around Silk Degree's forearm as it raised its fist towards the door of Mami's apartment. Before Mami could protest, it launched a second end of the ribbon outwards like a projectile, smashing through the door and going to the other side.

The ribbon continue to fly out, dragging the spider across the carpet and towards the door before it had hit a snag.

" _Gack! This ribbon...I-"_

The spider was silenced as Silk Degree's shadow hovered it, and was at the receiving end of one of its kicks.

The creature flew and smacked hard against the wall, letting out a pained shriek, its legs twitching in agony as it landed on the floor.

A shout came through the hole in the door.

The door swung open and a girl tumbled through, twitching like the spider and holding her sides as if in pain.

The uniform she wore was a black, old fashioned sailor fuku, similar in design to the ones worn by Spiders from Mars except for its many elaborate designs and ornate brooches.

The girl's raven hair had multiple split ends bent at angles and resembling the sharp legs of a spider. Her teeth was clenched. Blood trickled down her lip.

"What...the hell!" The girl spoke between grimaces and grunts. "My Spiders from Mars...is a swarm type stand! It shouldn't transfer damage to its user if only one body is hit! Then why...why did I feel like I was hit by a boulder?!"

The girl rolled around until she got onto her knees. Her eyes were the color of midnight, yet glittering with rage past her glasses.

"That fly...and this pain. You can switch sensations through your ribbons can't you!"

"Who-who are you?!" Mami said. "And why are you here?!"

"My name...is Aimi Aozora…" The girl snarled. "As for why I'm here...I wanted to collect that「canister」

"Canister?" Mami said. "What canister?"

"Don't play daft with me, you punk!" Aimi spat. A wad of blood came out of her mouth instead of saliva. "The canister with the magic rock! The one that gave you your cursed stand ability!"

The canister. She couldn't possibly be talking about _that_ canister could she? The one that had mysteriously fallen on a shrub in front of her apartment, and that housed a piece of stone that had prickled her finger.

The canister she had locked in a safe, right beneath a compartment that was hidden beneath the floor of her bedroom, held steadfast by a magic barrier.

"Why...why do want it?" Mami said.

"Oh...so you _were_ playing dumb," Aimi replied. Mami cursed herself silently; her tongue slipped and now the stranger knew she had what she was looking for.

"I want it...because I'm a 「collector」…" Aimi picked herself up and brushed herself off. It was then Mami knew why her sailor fuku uniform looked strange to her. She could sense it wasn't formed from regular material...but from magic.

"You...you're a magical girl!" Mami said.

"What?" Aimi said. "Weren't you listening? I said 「collector」, not magical girl. But yeah...I'm guess I'm that too...among other things. Besides the point, I was planning on collecting the canister in your possession Mami Tomoe."

"For...what purpose?" Mami tried her best to sound calm, but she knew the girl was trouble. And she couldn't let the words of the girl slip past her mind.

 _My Spiders from Mars…_

The way she referred the creatures as hers would have tipped her off enough, but the fact that her voice sounded exactly like the spiders' without the extra distortion, that her uniform was similar to the spiders', made it all the more clearer; the girl standing in front of Mami was Kyoko's assailant.

"For what purpose?" Aimi said. She suddenly took on a change of demeanor, her gaze losing their intensity. "I don't understand. I'm here just to collect, nothing more."

Mami didn't believe her. "That's it?"

"Of course. What else? I've been collecting various things since I was little you know. Bottle caps, beetles, postal stamps...heck even some old Boz Scaggs albums that I never bothered to listen to. I never opened them and I don't even know who Boz Scaggs is...I just know his albums are something to「collect」..."

So Mami wasn't dealing with just a magical girl or another one with a stand power like hers. She was also dealing with a crazy one. Aimi continued to rattle on.

"My psychiatrist called me a severe kleptomaniac. Maybe that was a sign I shouldn't have began to collect his business cards...and the magazines in his waiting room...and all of his desk pens…"

Mami abruptly held up a hand, shaking her head. "I...don't need to hear your life story."

"Oh…" Aimi whispered. "I figured I might as well...since you're going to forget it anyway. Along with any memories of who I am, or that I was even here…"

A large dark shadow loomed over Aimi, nearly threatening to wash her over like a wave. It was solid, its surface composed of many skittering shapes.

A mass of spiders.

"I gained my new ability...my「Spiders from Mars」...the same way you did yours Mami Tomoe," Aimi snarled. "Don't get the cocky notion that your troublesome ribbons can hold up to the entirety of my swarm."

Mami's mind went to pulling the trigger of her rifle before said weapon even magically appeared in her hands. When it did, her finger was already in the midst of pressing down. She fired and a bullet left the chamber trailing lines of yellow supernatural energy.

A large yo-yo appeared out of thin air before Aimi, its string wrapped around her finger. She spun the yo-yo around quicker than the bullet can reach her, and streams of white threads vomited forth from open spaces inlaid on the yo-yo's side.

The string came together to form a giant spider web that floated in front of Aimi like a levitating shield made to resemble a stringy snowflake, its ends tethered seemingly to empty space. It blocked the bullet, trapping them like flies.

"You think a bullet can work against me? Don't underestimate my Ragno di Vetr-"

The bullet unfurled into ribbons, and one of their ends curled into a hardened fist-like fist that lashed out at Aimi, getting in a good strike across her cheek. She yelled out, the swarm behind her dissipating.

"And don't underestimate my「Tiro Finale」…" Mami replied.

Aimi's eyes went wide at the sight of the gigantic cannon that Mami had called in front of her. "OH SHI-"

Tiro Finale was Mami's trump card. A massive, short-faced cannon made to resemble an over sized flintlock pistol that was nearly twice as long as the height of her body, it could barely be moved in the limited space of the apartment. Despite this, it was light in Mami's grasp, as light as any of her regular rifles but coursing with several times the raw power.

Mami had never used it against anything else other than a witch. She'll make an exception with Aimi and the stands she has in her command.

" _ **TIRO FINALE~!"**_

A whirlwind of energy and force launched out of Tiro Finale's barrel. The blast vomited forth was as the color of the rays of the sun and just as magnificent. It tore through Aimi's web shield with ease.

Aimi yelled and quickly willed another web shield, thicker than the first and with little to no open cavities between the strands. Aimi had a frightening fast reaction speed, though that didn't help the attack from ripping through that shield as well.

A third shield appeared, but this time it wasn't made of string. It was made of Spider from Mars.

The attack vaporized a dozen of the swarm, and causing Aimi to fall back, crashing through the door, ripping it straight off its hinges.

"Damn!" Mami quickly went to Kyoko. Silk Degrees came out, not speaking a word. Reacting perfectly to her thoughts, it cleaved through the cocoon with its narrowed fingers

Mami lifted Kyoko off the couch, the latter still in her magical girl outfit, her soul gem shining a brilliant, rich red. The apartment wasn't safe. Probably nowhere was, not from the swarm and the insane girl that commanded it.

She didn't know if Aimi survived Tiro Finale, but she wasn't about to assume anything.

Mami didn't leave the apartment right away. She went to her bedroom, where the canister was kept.

She could have handed the canister over, to stop Aimi from attacking her and her friend any further.

However, she couldn't let herself give in to her assailant's demands. Not after seeing what the canister was capable of.

If it could create something like Aimi and her Spider from Mars, then she wasn't about to let it fall into _anyone_ ' _s_ hands, much less the hands of a self-described bloodthirsty kleptomaniac. Who knows what horrid monsters it could create next...or what monsters it had already created.

She ran into her bedroom, hefting Kyoko upon one shoulder like one would hold a sack of rice.

She barely made it in when she felt a thumping on the back of her shoulder.

"Hey-what the hell is going on! Let me go you jerk!"

Kyoko was awake.

The two stared at each other in silence. Mami tried to come up with the words, but all she could do was gawk. No coherent words could form, her brain overtaxed from trying to figure out the right words. But no right words could be found.

At least her name would be a start.

"Kyoko...I-"

Kyoko punched her in the face, causing her to be released.

"Don't hold me like I'm some damsel in distress! I don't even know who you are!" Kyoko shouted.

"Wh-What?" Mami said. "Kyoko...it's me. Mami Tomoe."

"Mami Tomoe?" Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "Never heard of her."

"What!" Mami ran to her and grabbed her shoulders. "Kyoko...there's something wrong with you!"

Kyoko shook her off. "Hey lady! There's nothing wrong with me! Other than being attacked by a swarm of goddamn monsters."

"Monsters?"

"Yeah...tiny ass spider things..."

"These monsters...did they look like spiders in school outfits?"

"Huh?" Kyoko looked up. "How do you know?"

Aimi had mentioned something about knowing Mami from memories stolen from 'that redhaired brat'. Only now did she now what she had meant by that, and the thought caused a rage to boil in her belly.

No one steals the memories of her friends and gets away with it.

"Hey...what's that thumping noise?" Kyoko glanced around the room.

Mami thought it was Kyoko's delirium brought on by the ability of Aimi's stand, but then she heard the thumping too. Her eyes went to the source of the noise, the latch hidden beneath a fine carpet that led to the compartment where the canister was hidden.

The thumping stopped.

Immediately followed by a sudden explosion. Bits of wood and steel, presumably from the safe and fragments of the compartment's latch and door, were sent flying. Mami brought her arms up in defense, feeling splinters prickle at the edge of her elbows and wrists.

Her magic barrier was shredded apart by the tremendous force that tore through it...the rock inside the canister. It broke free and flew into Kyoko's chest.

It stabbed her, shattering her gem like glass to get to the flesh beneath, and her eyes went blank.

Mami's mind was incapable of registering what had just happened. Terror gripped her very soul. "K-Kyoko!"

Bursts of white thread exploded behind her, coming over her like a net fired from a gun. It wrapped around her arms and legs, running over her mouth to keep her from screaming any further, and proceeded to drag her out of the apartment.

The last thing she saw while in the apartment was Kyoko buckling on her knees and falling over, the arrow still stuck in her chest.

And a large candle sprouting out of her back.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Stand Name:** Silk Degrees

 **User:** Mami Tomoe

 **Namesake:** Silk Degrees (Boz Scaggs Album)

 **Formerly:** Candeloro

 **Stats:**

Destructive Power - B

Speed - A

Range - A

Durability - C

Precision - A

Development Potential - B

 **Abilities:**

Sharing your feelings: The stand can transfer or share any of five sensations (sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing) between organisms caught at the ends of its ribbons. The ribbons themselves act as a secondary nervous system to any beings touched by them.

* * *

 **Stand Name:** Spiders from Mars

 **User:** Aimi Aozora

 **Namesake:** Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

 **Formerly:** Patricia

 **Stats:**

Destructive Power - E

Speed - B (A when riding Ragno di Vetro)

Range - A

Durability - E

Precision - B

Development Potential - C

 **Abilities:**

Memory sucking:

Each Spider can absorb a single memory of any organism it sinks its syringe to. The Spider cannot hold more than one memory, and sucking another memory would require the Spider to release the one it had sucked, returning it to the target.

Hivemind:

The user shares a hivemind with each of the Spiders, knowing whatever the stand knows. However, a human mind is only capable of storing a limited amount of another being's memories before it is overloaded.


	6. Spiders from Mars part 3

**Chapter Six - Patricia's Spiders from Mars part 3**

The candle was the last thing Mami saw as she was lifted out into the chilly evening air, up and beyond the apartment complex.

The wind stung at her face, causing her eyebrows to flutter as she was lifted higher and higher until she cleared the very roofs of the apartments and saw lights dotting the dark horizon beyond.

It wasn't the stars she was seeing, but Mitakihara's skyline, the lights of its many buildings and streets coming together to form a forest of neon and vibrant colors.

The city was beautiful at night despite it being fertile ground for witches and their familiars, but Mami didn't have time to appreciate the sights. She was too busy being dragged by the web further and further up.

She then came to an abrupt halt, a few dozen feet above the rooftops of her apartment complex. The threads of webbing wrapped around her body released and sprang outwards, shooting out in different directions and anchoring themselves to places where the magical girl could not see, their semi-transparent nature making them practically invisible in the darkness of the night sky.

Her limbs were stuck, forced open as the string settled into the form of one massive spider web, the largest she has ever seen. It was wide enough to have snagged a helicopter, and long enough to have covered the entirety of the square open space of the apartment complex, which appeared down below.

 _Damn, I'm trapped!_ Mami struggled to break free, but to no avail. Magical girls were strong, but the magical string was stronger. It was as if her arms and legs were bound together by an adhesive powered by magic.

A shadow loomed over her. It belonged to an injured, crazed Aimi.

She still donned her magical girl form, her uniform burnt and torn in various places. A few wisps of smoke trailed from her, some from her outfit and some from her messy hair. Blood trickled down her head, her lips and her arms. Only her glasses were in pristine condition, almost impossibly so, the eyes beneath them burning black with intense hatred.

"That was a powerful attack," Aimi snarled. "It's a good thing it only hit a「fraction」of my stand, so I only took a「fraction」 of the damage. But still...it hurts like hell!"

Mami tried to break free once again, and again she failed. The string was simply too strong, unbreakable like diamonds. Without her arms free, she couldn't raise a rifle or properly defend herself from what Aimi was planning to do next. And she was certain that _whatever_ the deranged girl _was_ planning, she probably wouldn't like.

"I should've expected as much from the great Mami Tomoe to hurt me this badly…" Aimi said. "Your reputation certainly precedes you...but this ends now! I'm going to use every single one of my Spiders from Mars to suck your memories dry!"

Tiny vibrations began to travel up and down the various strings holding Mami. She could still moved her neck, and she looked around, to see the source of what was causing the movements she was feeling. She wish she didn't.

She was surrounded by Spiders from Mars, their many black uniforms blending with the evening darkness around them. Only the sparks coming from their skates as they sped across the many threads of the spider web made their presence known. They didn't lunge at Mami immediately, merely circling her like a wolf pack slowly awaiting to close in on cornered prey.

"You...why are you doing this!?" Mami yelled.

"I told you, I'm a collector, and the canisters will be my next collection!"

The circle of spiders grew smaller. Mami gulped.

"This confrontation has been an real eye opener for me," Aimi whispered, stroking her chin. Her lips curled. "I was afraid to go after the canisters belonging to the「others」. However, it seems I'm on the verge of defeating the great Mami Tomoe! Sure, I got my ass kicked around a lot and it took a lot of work, but if I can defeat you, then the「others」will surely eventually fall to my 「Spiders from Mars」!" She cackled into the night. "Hell, maybe I should even pay to Eri a visit again!"

 _There were others._ Mami heard of rumors that there were magical girls in town beginning to develop strange gifts. Weird abilities that could not be explained by Kyubey, and was unrelated to their base magical power set. The power to conjure strange, witch-like beings that could bend to the every whim of the conjurer.

Only now did Mami make the connection. The beings that the rumors spoke of...must be of the same breed as Silk Degrees and Spiders from Mars.

Stands. There were other stand users in Mitakihara.

Which gave Mami a sudden realization. She had a stand herself, and only her physical arms were bound. Silk Degrees hadn't touched the web yet.

"Silk Degrees!" Mami shouted.

The spiders halted their advancement. Aimi regarded the stand with bemusement instead of seeming threatened.

Silk Degrees formed out of light and hovered over its user, its knuckles bared. "S-H-I-T. Looks like you've got a real pest problem master. I'll gladly take care of it."

"Then do it!" Mami yelled.

Silk Degrees whirled around and hurled a fist towards Aimi, responding directly to Mami's thoughts. Smashing a few spiders wasn't going to do much if they can divide the damage done even by Tiro Finale, so she decided to strike directly at the source.

Just then, Aimi tripped backward, right as the fist flew over her.

No, not tripped. She fell back on purpose, landing on a platform made of her spiders, and they quickly sped across the web, bringing their master out of harm's way right as Silk Degrees tried to land a downward strike on her. Instead, the fist landed on web, causing it a strand to slither across the stand's forearm like a snake, trapping it.

"Oh crap-" Mami said. She could feel every attempt at tugging free from Silk Degrees, every exertion of the stand's muscles as it tried to break away.

"You fool!" Aimi's spiders rose her up as she stayed perfectly still, her cross-armed posture barely changing. "Have you forgotten? In the world of my webs, nothing can beat Spiders from Mars' speed!"

The spiders then broke out, speeding across the web, their skates sending off more sparks as their velocity reached a mighty peak. They whizzed around like bullets stuck to rails, the very air parting in their wake.

" _ **TIRORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORORO!~"**_

Still stuck to the web, Silk Degrees struck out with its only freed arm...and missed every single spider. The tiny stands weaved out of the way of the barrage of attacks effortlessly. Mami's stand let out another single armed barrage. An exercise in futility as the spiders dodged effortlessly from the blows, sending sparks flying as they sped across the threads.

"Fu fu fu...it's no use!" Aimi gloated after letting out a hearty laugh. "No matter how fast your stand is, mine will always be faster as long as they have have my webs to run on!"

"Oh?" This time, Mami could feel her own lips upturned into a grin. "Good thing I _counted_ on you running your stand across your webs in the first place."

"What!" A surprised Aimi said. She had the look of someone who had expected her opponent to despair, but instead found her opponent showing anything but. "What are you talking about?"

Aimi froze, as if her entire body had been grabbed by a large invisible hand. The only movements she could make were reduced to tiny twitches and twistings of her face.

"W-What! I can't move!"

She looked over to her spiders. "Impossible! What did you do to my Spiders from Mars!"

Each of the spiders were tangled by tinier yellow threads, roughly half the thickness of Aimi's magic string. The threads glowed brightly and was wrapped around each of Ragno di Vetro's individual strands, coming out from underneath it. The ends of Silk Degree's ribbon.

A ribbon had been produced from Silk Degree's fist when it became stuck to the web, snaking out from underneath when Aimi wasn't looking. The ends of the ribbon had split into smaller threads, which further subdivided into even tinier threads. And, while Aimi was distracted with thoughts of victory, Mami willed the threads to criss-cross and come together into a second web with the same shape as the one above it, hiding it perfectly.

"I made a second「web」beneath yours Aimi…" Mami whispered. "I was waiting for your Spiders from Mars to run across your string...to demonstrate that speed you boast so much about. Unlucky for you, you shouldn't have sent「all」of them, otherwise there'd be a few left not caught in my「trap」."

Hurting a single aspect of a swarm stand may not do much to the user, but all of Spiders from Mars were tangled by Silk Degree's ribbons, causing the whole to be tangled, and thus the user.

"You...you planned this!" Aimi snarled. "You snuck your damn ribbon beneath us and overlaid a second web! And sprung it when I moved my stand!"

"Of course...don't think you can beat me so easily!" Mami replied. "Now we're both trapped."

Aimi grinded her teeth.

"Since you aren't going to free me," Mami said. "I'm not going to free you either. We're in a stalemate, whether you like it or not."

"Damn you," Aimi said. "No one gets in the way of my collection!"

The spiders made one mighty push forward...and the ribbons tightened from their movements. Aimi made an audible _gack_ as her invisible bonds strengthened like the grip of an anaconda, her arms forced to her sides.

"If any of your spiders move...my ribbons will tighten." Mami said. "The only way out of this is you let me go...and let me 'repay' you for doing what you did to Kyoko!"

Mami had thought she had gotten the better of her assailant. She was mistaken, as the girl quickly let out cackling laughter.

"You idiot, did you really think you got me like that?" Aimi then nodded toward her feet. "Look here. Notice how I can still wiggle my toes?"

Mami was dumbfounded. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"

"You idiot! Think!" Aimi chuckled again. "If you had captured every part of my stand with your ribbon, _I shouldn't be able to move at all_!"

Mami felt a shiver down her back as many, tiny legs skittering beneath the web. She looked over her shoulder, one of the few movements she could afford, and saw dark shapes speed across from underneath.

A dozen or so of Spider from Mars clinging underneath, moving across the web created by Silk Degrees. Now she knew what Aimi meant; the toes wiggling were representative of a few Spiders that Aimi had held back, free from being ensnared.

"Spider from Mars! Cut the web!" Aimi barked.

Mami's breath was stuck in her throat as she looked on in horror, as the spiders raised the blades beneath their feet and sliced through her web of ribbon.

But Mami wasn't about to lose the fight just yet.

The ends of the ribbon that had been cut by the spiders' skates lashed out, though the spiders beneath dodged them easily, skating upside down out of the way using their swiftness.

"Haha! You idiot! You think you can hit my spiders like that? I didn't expect you to be that desperate!"

"I wasn't trying to get your spiders with my ribbons," Mami replied. "I was trying to hit something else…"

"Eh?" Aimi raised an eyebrow. Then her expression turned sour as she clutched her head, her face going pale and her eyes and mouth widening.

"What is this! What am I seeing!"

Mami smiled as she saw a fly whizz past...the same fly that was in her apartment and that had flown out, with the end of a new ribbon attached to it, one of the ends that Spiders from Mars had cut. The rest of the web had yet to be cut, meaning they threads branching off them were still attached to the other spiders.

Meaning, Aimi was seeing through the eyes of her stands, which in turn were all seeing through the eyes of the fly.

"Why is everything so slow!? Why is there millions of everything!?"

Aimi lurched as if her head was spinning, but regained her composure at the last second as anger took over. She glared angrily at Mami.

"You're doing this aren't you?" Aimi shouted. "But you have to be an idiot to think that switching my sights with an insect could get me!"

Mami felt a crawling on her shoulder. A spider that had snuck up on her. It didn't waste time plunging its syringe into her face. She let out a pained yelp...but everything was going according to her plan.

"I got you now!" Aimi shouted. "I was going to just suck out memories of where you hid your canister, but I already know its stuck in that redhaired brat's chest! Since I'm so _pissed_ off right now, I'm going to「collect」a few of your most precious memories...so you'll never be able to think of them ever again!"

"Oh?" Mami said. "I wouldn't do that either."

"Still damned cocky?" Aimi spat. "You fool...you ar-"

The spider dropped from Mami's cheek as Aimi suddenly broke down on her knees in a sudden show of pain, clutching her head as if her skull threatened to explode. She was left into a coherent babbling mess, spittle coming from her mouth.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"You're sucking out my memories...I can feel it," Mami said. "But a single human memory can be an entire lifetime's worth of memories...to a fly."

Insects, especially flies, experienced time in a different way than humans. This, when combined with their drastically short lifespans, meant an hour held more memories for a fly than a human. And a single human memory could potentially fill a fly's entire lifetime.

"Gah! Too many! Too many memories!" Aimi shouted.

The human mind, like a basic computer, has limited storage space. It can only house so much information before it can't take anymore and threatens to shut down.

Aimi's mind must have been close to over-spilling, the single memories being plucked from Mami being the equivalent of a hundred memories each as the ribbon continued to transfer sensations from the fly to Aimi.

She flopped hard on the web. It snapped beneath her weight, or perhaps by her own will as it promptly disintegrated into nothingness after. Spiders from Mars vanished as well, each black body flickering out of existence one after another in fast succession.

With nothing holding her back, Mami felt the wind rush behind her body, fluttering her hair drills as the force holding her up vanished. Her body became almost weightless as she let herself plummet backwards, then gracefully kicked into a position that allowed her to land feet first out on the street right beside the apartment complex.

Aimi, coincidentally landed only a few feet away from her, barely missing a car that was parked next to the curb. Mami had thought her to be dead at first, until the magical girl propped herself up on weary limbs, and stood up on unsteady legs. She wobbled a bit before regaining her balance, and when she finally did she glared at Mami with a face that screamed Hell. Dirt from the pavement clung on her uniform, which glittered beneath the streetlights despite their worn state.

"Damn...damn damn damn!" Aimi shouted. "I thought getting that piece of rock would be easy! A stroll in the park! But I should've known better! You are Mami Tomoe after all!"

"Give up," Mami said severely. She narrowed her own brows. "You already lost." Silk Degrees floated behind its user, vigilant and ready to spring into action the moment Aimi did so much as take a single step forward. She had enough of the girl's nonsense.

"Hehehe," Aimi chuckled. Mami's sense of victory became deflated and she became slightly uneasy. She was certain the situation was favorable to her in every way she could conceive, but whenever the girl laughed, there was a nasty surprise waiting for her.

"It's true...you have utterly defeated me," Aimi said. "But...I am going to get that rock one way or another! Once I have set my eyes on collecting something...it _is_ going to be collected! And I will do anything as necessary! Even…"

Aimi smiled. She pointed to behind Mami, out to the streets beyond. "Even if it means holding a「hostage」like some common thug!"

Mami glanced towards the direction to where she was pointing.

It was a little boy, a head shorter than Mami, walking out in the distance and oblivious to the two magical girls. He had light grey hair that ended in sharp ends and wore a white school uniform. The uniform did not belong to any school in Mitakihara, or at least any Mami recognized, meaning he was possibly out of town. A boy that young wandering the streets alone late at night was enough reason for worry...but the spiders clinging to his back caused Mami's heart to skip a beat and a gasp to escape the magical girl's lips.

"What are yo-" Mami was interrupted.

"Give me the rock Mami Tomoe, or I will do more than suck out that boy's memories. I'll put him in the hospital...or worse!"

"You're...you're insane!"

Mami would never allow an innocent to get hurt, whether it be witch or something else. She couldn't call herself a competent magical girl otherwise.

"You...release him!" Mami brought out her rifle.

"Oh careful!" Aimi said. "If the skates of my stand can cut through your ribbons, think how easily they can cut human flesh! Want me to test that out on that kid?"

The rifle shook in Mami's trembling hand. She couldn't fire without the spider on the boy. Given how unhinged Aimi was, it was a more than likely possibility that she would make good on the threat on the boy's life.

She had no choice. She trusted her opponent as much as a deer would trust a hyena, but if the boy was to stay safe, then she was going to have to-

"Agh! What the hell are these things!"

A yell came from behind. It was the boy's, followed by the voice of another.

" **ECHOES! THREE FRE~~~EEEZE!"**

Mami stared on in shock, and she reckoned Aimi did the same, as the boy himself summoned out a bald humanoid being with the same build as him. A ghostly yet mechanical being with robotic eyes, loose trunk shorts with the word "3" written on them, and a line of round, striated green buttons running vertically across the being's bulbous head.

The boy had a stand, which struck down all of the spiders clinging to its master's body with a speed and precision that rivaled Silk Degrees. It was possibly even faster.

"Ah!" Aimi's arm suddenly drooped down to the ground. She fell on her knees and her right index finger plunged into the surface of the road...and cracked it. "My finger! Why is my finger so heavy!"

"Hey!" The boy pointed at their direction. Mami looked frantically from him and to Aimi who was struggling to lift his arm off the ground. "You...you both are stand users!"

Then he pointed to Aimi specifically. His voice became deeper, his hair suddenly standing on their ends. His demeanor changed, his eyes turning serious. An aura enveloped him.

"I don't know who you are, but I know you just tried to attack me just now! Explain yourself, or I'll make your stands even heavier! And I know a thing or two about swarm stands...you may be able to transfer the damage, but I can still make a specific part of your body heavy by hitting your stands!"

"Damn you! Ragno di Ve-" Aimi's face suddenly opened like a book. Mami held her mouth from gagging. But it wasn't bone or meat she was seeing underneath; it was paper and writing.

Aimi's face had actually _turned_ into a book. The doing of the man who had snuck up behind her, coming out of the shadows with a short, humanlike boyish creature wearing a dapper white tophat and bowtie suit following behind that quickly vanished.

"Heaven's Door!" The man's hand moved with a speed that Mami thought was only achievable by stands. He carried a sharp tool in his grip, which she had thought to be a knife or dagger at first, until he stopped and revealed it to be nothing more than a pen.

He had written inside Aimi's face-pages, which promptly closed, returning her face to normal. Then she fell over, going completely unconscious. A peaceful kind of unconscious that made it look like she was taking a nap, or knocked out by a powerful sedative.

"Oh, hello Koichi," The man said, turning to the boy. "I see you are going for a relaxing evening walk to check out the town too?"

The boy's jaw dropped. "Relaxing evening walk? You call this a relaxing evening walk?! I was attacked by a stand!"

The man was the strangest person Mami had ever seen, solely on the clothes he just chose to wear. His hair was combed over a hairband with triangular teeth that was worn for no seeming rhyme or reason. Earrings shaped like the tips of ink pens hung from his ears. He wore an odd combination of gaudy sweater and overalls that exposed his toned midriff, half of which was thankfully covered by the Gucci brand handbag he carried.

The boy continued to shout at him, and the man sheepishly smiled while pretending to hold his ears.

Mami didn't know who the two were, but she took one look at how easily they dispatched Aimi, how they were able to defeat an opponent that she had struggled with within seconds of meeting her.

She willed forth two rifles, one for each hand, and pointed it towards the man and the boy. They clicked, and their heads were quickly turned to her direction. They stared down the barrel of her weapons.

"Who...who the hell are you two!" Mami shouted.

The man showed no signs of intimidation, his expression serious but reserved, showing no signs of being intimidated. The boy on the other hand began to sweat, his mouth and eyes going wide in obvious panic.

"K-Kishibe-san! That young lady is pointing guns at us!"

 _Young lady? Just how old was the boy?_ Was Mami's last thoughts before she lost consciousness, right before she felt her own face peeling away, turning into the pages of a book.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	7. Walpurgisnacht's New LifeDI part 1

**Chapter Seven - Walpurgisnacht's New Life/Disco Inferno Part 1**

 **4:34 PM - The Day After Rohan and Koichi met Mami**

Morgan Nightly Feelgood was not like other vampires.

Most humans, when blessed by the powers of the stone mask, were consumed by megalomania, driven by a desire to take over the world using their newly granted might. Typical behavior expected of weaker beings that had suddenly gained abilities that put them into the realm of gods.

But Dr. Feelgood did not behave in such a way, despite having such godlike power from the mask. She didn't bother to show off her powers or go around trying to conquer everything that she saw. Instead, she did what most other vampires would never think of doing; she tried to live a quiet life.

For a vampire, bringing yourself to the lowly level of the very cattle you fed on was not only degrading, but more difficult than fighting with a skilled ripple practitioner. Vampires were born to fight, not to hide their talents, in the same way wolves were born to use their fangs. But Dr. Feelgood swallowed her pride and stifled her more predatory instincts when applicable to the point of dulling them, all in order to appear as nothing more than one more member of the human flock festering in Mitakihara city. She had assimilated completely, with no one suspecting the pretty foreign doctor was the stuff of horror novels.

And certainly not the mugger that had the misfortune of running into her as she walked down a lonely street roughly around 4:30 PM.

He was a vagabond clad in a dirtied security guard's uniform, probably a leftover from someplace like a bank that he refused to return. It was in disarray, the shirt heavy with stains and ripped at places, and lacked anything like pouches or a gun holster clipped to the belt like most rent-a-cops were expected to have.

The sweet smell of the blood flowing through his veins was barely above the reek of alcohol coming from the man's breath, the latter of which Dr. Feelgood's superhuman senses had the misfortune of picking up on.

"Gimme that pretty necklace around your neck," The man's voice was gravelly, his cracked lips exposing missing teeth. In one hand, he held a switchblade.

The knife was about as harmless as a toothpick to a fully fledged vampire. However, Dr. Feelgood pretended to be afraid regardless, for it was the human thing to do. She had lived pretending to be a human for so long, that she was beginning to think like them. A fact that reassured and terrified her.

"W-What?" Dr. Feelgood made her voice waver on cue, like an actress acting out a part flawlessly. She did a fake shiver and willed fake tears to collect on the corner of her eyes, despite the fact he could kill the man anytime she wanted to. Anything to make it seem like she was afraid, and not contemplating ripping the man's spine out. "W-What do you want?"

"What are ya, deaf? I just said I wanted that necklace!" The man snarled. He jabbed a finger at the necklace hanging around Dr. Feelgood's neck exposed by the popped open collar of the dress shirt she wore beneath her coat. The necklace of course wasn't an ordinary necklace. It's chain was not attached to a gemstone, but a sparkling green rock with a magnificence that rivaled one. It was a fragment of the meteorite that gave her Iron Maiden.

"T-This?" Dr. Feelgood fished the rock out. She snapped the chain and threw it towards the man. "Fine, just take it! Just...don't hurt me!"

The man eyed the necklace with the look of a dumb animal, before smiling and exposing his missing teeth. He walked forward and went down to pick the necklace.

Dr. Feelgood growled on the inside. If any vampire saw her now, they'd mock her for having to stoop so low. But she had the last laugh; they were all dead and she was the only one still alive, thanks to her strategy of pretending to be a frail human.

Besides, she wasn't planning on letting the vagabond live, or allowing the meteor fragment to fall into anyone's hands but hers.

She just wanted an excuse to use Iron Maiden.

A dark, flickering purple aura flared behind Dr. Feelgood, from which a second shadow sprouted from her back. A shadow that settled into the shape of Iron Maiden, the gears around its legs churning beneath its large, frilly umbrella-shaped skirt, the semi-transparent veil draped over the corners of its two cone-shaped horns flapping in the wind. As always, an unflinching wide grin was plastered across its otherwise featureless pale face.

The man couldn't see the stand, nor did Dr. Feelgood expect him too.

Dr. Feelgood grinned like her stand. It wasn't often she gets the opportunity to use her stand's unique powers, and she was itching to use it. Like a kid with a new toy that was fresh from the package and never really played with.

"Stop." Dr. Feelgood shouted. The man halted, looking flummoxed by his target's sudden change of character. Her gaze turned icy, her tone becoming intense.

"The moment you pick up that necklace," Dr. Feelgood whispered. "You will be set down a「path」 that you will regret."

The man looked up, the necklace in his hand. "Huh? What the hell are you-"

The surroundings were instantly consumed by a distortion effect accompanied by sounds that sounded like thick paper being ripped mixed with blaring dubstep beats.

* * *

The mugger blinked. And he was suddenly somewhere else.

"W-what? What is this?" The man gawked.

The world around him had been changed. He was no longer in the dark alleyway trying to steal the sparkling green necklace from that sexy foreign lady in the white doctor's coat, but back in a place he'd never thought he'd see again.

Inside Kameyu Bank's Mitakihara Branch, the place he was fired from a month ago. He remembered everything about the place, from the long lights on the ceiling that had a tendency to flicker and hum and never work properly, to the kiosks made of fine wood and the posters advertising credit cards and special deals that were practically all scams in his opinion.

But the surroundings wasn't the only thing that had changed. The man _himself_ had changed. His security guard's outfit, which he had kept against the wishes of his employers, was back in pristine condition without a stain or tear in sight. He also had become well-shaved, his dirty beard gone, and he smelled like as if he had taken a shower not too long ago.

"Oh shit!" The man gawked. He even had his badges and radio back, all clipped neatly to his belt. And in his hand wasn't the switchblade knife which he used to threaten the woman he tried to rob. It was the service pistol he was given as part of his duties as a security guard.

 _What the hell is this? What is going on-_

The gun in his hands wasn't pointing at the woman. Instead, in her place, stood a tall, muscular man whose face was hidden behind a black wool mask that had sockets which exposed his hard, deep set eyes and mouth. There were two other men dressed in similar wool masks, all brandishing firearms and and large bags slung across their shoulders. One of them shouted.

"Alright! Everyone on the ground! And hand over all the cash!"

There were other people in the bank, all of them crouching with their heads held down. They looked frightened out of their minds.

The man felt something wet and numb in his chest. He glanced down and noticed the steadily growing dark red stain appearing on his uniform, right beneath his breast pocket. Coincidentally, it was the same time he noticed the masked figure in front of him had a pistol in his gloved hand. The pistol's barrel was smoking.

The man fell backward, clutching his chest. He had been shot.

* * *

Dr. Feelgood studied her watch as she counted down the seconds when Iron Maiden's ability would soon end.

"...Five...four...three...two...one…"

The noise of ripping dubstep filled the air once again, and the vagabond that tried to mug her reappeared, teleporting back to the same place he was before he vanished thanks to Iron Maiden's strange ability. His body was flailing backwards as if he had been in free fall. He landed with a loud thud, his blood staining the grimy stone ground.

His chest was marked by what looked like to be the result of a particularly fatal gunshot.

"W-What…" The man tried to choke his words out. Blood leaked from the corner of his lips. "What d-did you do to me?"

"What did I do?" Dr. Feelgood whispered. Her expression changed dramatically, her grin widening. She was no longer the kind, shy doctor everyone at the hospital thought she was. She was exposing her true self, something she didn't do often but enjoyed it when she did. "I didn't do anything. You were killed by something or someone beyond my control. "

She walked nonchalantly over the dying man. She bent low, making sure that the man's eyes met hers right as she picked the rock fragment off the ground and pocketed it. He had the look of a rat drowning in a cesspool, his eyes overflowing with fear that she could almost taste. She relished his fear, drinking it in like a fine wine and loving every second of it.

"I merely set you down a「certain path」...to make sure you got killed," Dr. Feelgood smiled. She stood back up and turned away from the man as he went into his final moments.

"I would try to help you...since this town thinks I'm a doctor after all. But I'm afraid I'm off duty right now. Sorry."

She walked away, right as she heard one last spasm from the man before his body became absolutely still. He stopped breathing, a fact she picked up on thanks to her inhumanly acute hearing.

She didn't bother drinking from the man, for who knows how dirty the blood of a bum like his was. She also didn't bother turning him into a zombie, for there was nothing tying her to his murder. The gun that had magically appeared in his hand when he came back after Iron Maiden's ability ended would make it seem like he committed suicide.

As she walked out of the alleyway, a few police cruisers rushed across the street in front of her, their sirens blaring loudly. Her hearing managed to pick up few tidbits of what was being shouted out in cruisers' radios.

" _Bank robbery in progress...Kameyu bank...gunshots…requesting backup."_

The cars disappeared around the corner, towards the bank where the man she had just killed "died". She glanced down at her watch.

4:35 PM. The time when the mugger's life ended. And in another world, it was the same time that the mugger still had his job at Kameyu bank, the very one that was being robbed this instant. For this was Iron Maiden's unique ability...to replace time.

With the sirens gone, Dr. Feelgood smiled. A smile that faded as she heard a young girl's voice coming from behind her. A familiar voice.

"To replace time...to switch「ten seconds worth of time」 with a 「concurrent segment of time」from an alternate, parallel timeline…"

Dr. Feelgood turned around. A strange creature whose flesh was made of pure midnight was crouching over the man that had just died. Tendrils of darkness roughly in the shape of vines took the place of the creature's hair. It was made of not flesh, but corporeal shadow, skin pitch black like soil.

"A truly horrifying ability…" The creature turned around. It stared at Dr. Feelgood with striated eyes of metallic yellow. It spoke without a mouth."...especially the part about how any「damage or effects」sustained during the replaced time carries over even after the ability has ended. Poor bastard was「shot」without being shot."

"If it isn't Elsa Maria," Dr. Feelgood growled. "What brings you here?"

Elsa Maria's stand craned its neck. "I've come to indulge you with information that you might find interesting."

Elsa Maria was the second closest thing to an ally that Dr. Feelgood had in Mitakihara, but she was far from a friend. She was just another lowly human trying to get a taste of the power of the stone mask for herself, something that only Dr. Feelgood could grant. And Elsa Maria wasn't even her real name; Dr. Feelgood wasn't sure what her true name was.

Still, if there was one thing she could rely on, then it was Elsa Maria's information. She had her eyes and ears across the entirety of the town, for her stand, Night Ranger, was perfectly suited for spying and information gathering. To this end, Dr. Feelgood made a deal with her. A deal of immortality.

"You know that Elly kid? The one with the stand that can make things intangible by a simple touch?"

"Yeah, what about that brat?" Dr. Feelgood asked.

"Well...that brat got defeated by another. A new stand user."

"Oh?" Dr. Feelgood perked up. Now here was something interesting. "Who is it?"

"The stand user's name...is Madoka Kaname."

The name sounded familiar to the vampire, but her mind was drawing a blank. Where on earth did she hear that name before? "Kaname huh? Can't say I've really heard of her. What does her stand do?"

"I'm not exactly sure...but it seems it can manipulate probability to an extent," Night Ranger narrowed its eyes. "An ability that is similar to the power of your stand."

"Like Iron Maiden? Don't be ridiculous," Dr. Feelgood scoffed. "My stand's power isn't merely to alter probability. It exchanges entire segments of time for another."

"True true...and it certainly is an unstoppable ability...or at least _seems_ to be. But you can never be too careful," Night Ranger spoke with a faint mocking tone, which Dr. Feelgood readily picked up and was annoyed by. The shadowy stand then crawled over to a large diagonal cut of shadow cast by the alleyway, just past the corpse of the vagabond. It used its ability, and its body began to sink into the shadow as if it was a pool of water.

It stopped midway to deliver one final message before disappearing into the shadow. "By the way, it almost slipped my mind. That Aimi Aozora brat was also taken down...by Mami Tomoe. She didn't do it alone. There's two new stand users in town…"

* * *

 **THE NIGHT BEFORE**

"Rohan-sensei, just who is this girl?" Koich said.

Rohan didn't listen. He was too enthralled in what he was reading from the blond girl's pages formed from her face as she lay unconscious on the street. The pages not only told him that the girl's name was Mami Tomoe, an upper classmen at Mitakihara Middle School, but that she was something else. Something that Rohan, in his lifetime of dealing with stand users, ghosts, oni, haunted villages, cursed Louvre paintings, supernatural Gucci bags, and killer abalone, had never encountered before.

"Koichi-kun...she's a magical girl!"

"Magical girl?" Koichi said. "Rohan, this is not time for cracking for jokes. Magical girls are the stuff of anime and manga, not real life."

"Bullshit Koichi! My Heaven's Door never lies! And besides...vampires and ghosts are real, so why can't magical girls be?"

"Sheesh Rohan," Koichi sassily crossed his arms. "Next you'll be saying witches are real and that there's monsters that live inside everyone's TVs or something stupid like that…and we should probably get her inside, along with that other-"

Rohan didn't catch what Koichi said near the end. His eyes were glued to the page. Whenever he felt inspiration from a new exciting idea for his manga, he felt a fire of creativity burn in his body. A fire that made it difficult for him to think about anything else other than drawing manga deep into the night, and then some.

"Magical girls...how exciting!" Rohan exclaimed.

"Rohan!" Koichi suddenly shouted in his ear.

"What?" Rohan looked away from Mami's pages, irritated.

"The other girl...she's gone!"

"Oh…" Rohan shrugged. "Okay."

"Okay? Okay!" For a man with the stature of a gradeschooler, Koichi had a mighty set of lungs in his compact body. "She's a stand user! One who attacked me! Who knows what'll happen if we let her loose!"

"Relax, Koichi." Rohan explained. "My Heaven's Door cured the one thing that was causing her rampage."

"Huh?" Koichi looked confused.

"I wrote「you'll stop being a kleptomaniac」onto her with my ability. She won't be going around attacking people with those spiders of hers anymore, or trying to steal their memories."

"Oh," Koichi said. He scratched the back of his head. "I forgot how useful your stand really is." He glared at Rohan once he noticed he was back to reading Mami's pages.

"R-Rohan! Are you still reading that girl's life history?!" Rohan yelled.

"Yeah...so?" Rohan replied.

"That's an invasion of privacy! At least wait until we're somewhere inside before you start reading through people's secrets!"

"Fine fine," Rohan said. Koichi had a point. A famous mangaka shouldn't be seen peeping on a fifteen year old girl knocked unconscious on the open street. Luckily, one of the pages on Mami's face told the location of her apartment.

* * *

For a fifteen year old that lived alone, she was remarkably well off if her apartment was anything to go by. Entire parts of the apartment's walls had been replaced by fine glass windows, exposing the evening Mitakihara skyline and the many, vibrant lights dotting against the night. The living room was spacious, with couches and a glass table of the finest quality. Many delicate, ornate vases and chinaware dotted the place's many shelves. It was a place that Rohan himself wouldn't mind having, if it weren't for the fact he was absolutely certain his house was better.

How did Rohan know she lived alone? Because he read about it, including the part about how her parents died in a car accident. A mangaka's inspiration could come from anywhere, and the girl's bitter backstory was perfect for a tragic character in his manga. Most would find shame in exploiting the death of a young girl's loved ones for making comics, but Rohan was not most people.

"You still have her turned as a book!?" Koichi yelled.

Rohan placed Mami gently on her couch, her face flap still open with pages of text spilling from underneath. He turned to Koichi, who had a look of exasperation across his face.

"Of course. I'm not done reading yet."

Koichi rolled his eyes. Rohan respected the short man, but he lacked the eccentric vision that marks a great mangaka. Most people did.

"Alright Rohan-san, we should get out of here," Koichi said, glancing around the apartment nervously. "I don't want the neighbors to think we're breaking in."

"Hang on Koichi," Rohan said. "There's 「something」we have to get here. Something of utter「importance」."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Rohan flipped to a page on Mami's face, and showed it to Koichi. The latter gasped as he focused on the words written.

 **Stored the rock canister inside my room. Gave me strange new powers in the form of Silk Degrees.**

"M-My god!" Koichi almost ran out of breath. "The stand meteor fragment...it's here!"

"And it's in her room," Rohan said. He smirked. "I didn't think we would get one so early. Only five more to go."

"I'll go check her room right now!" Koichi said. "Then we've got to tell Jotaro-san!"

He ran off into one of the next rooms while Rohan redirected his attention back to Mami's pages. He continued reading, then he felt goosebumps on his flesh as it went as pale as a sheet.

 **Rock exploded out of the secret compartment in my room. Pierced my friend. Saw a giant candle come out of her.**

"A giant...candle?" Rohan whispered. He turned and saw that Koichi was gone. Panic abruptly seized him, prompting him to quickly get up and run after his companion. He turned the corner and made it in time just to see Koichi open the door to the girl's room.

"Koichi! Don't open that door!"

Koichi turned around. "Eh? Why not?"

A monstrous being phased through the door behind Koichi as he was distracted. It had a giant candle for a head, just like how Mami Tomoe's pages described it. Its face was inlaid to the front of the candle, its eyes black with silver crosshairs for irises, a metallic apparatus taking place of its mouth like a diver's mask. The flames atop its candle burned brightly, but passed through the ceiling without so much as leaving a cinder.

The rest of the body slowly emerged from the door, like a ghost's. It was clad in a kimono with an oversized collar and large sleeves, colored a vibrant red and orange with elaborate patterns.

Koichi didn't even notice it as it raised its claws towards him.

"Koichi-kun! Watch out!" Rohan shouted.

Koichi turned around. He twisted in horror as the creature raised its fingers towards his face. It spoke, in the distorted voice that may have belonged to a girl.

"「 _ **Disco Inferno**_ 」 _ **!**_ "

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Author's notes: I was originally going to reveal Iron Maiden's powers later, but I couldn't help it anymore. I've been thinking of this ability ever since my earlier fic, (i.e for a damn long while, possibly greater than a year) and I couldn't resist revealing it for this chapter given that it had stewed in my mind long enough.

Forgive me for tooting my own horn, but, to paraphrase Keicho Nijimura...Iron Maiden is my finest work. There's still aspects of the stand that I haven't revealed yet, but let me know what you guys think of the power so far.

I also want to alert to a possible hiatus coming up after New Year's. I've been booked on a busy client for the busiest part of the year, and I don't think I will have enough free time to write during that time. It's too soon to say, and hopefully I *might* be able to afford a little bit of time to work on at least a chapter or two, but I do want to let you know just in case.


	8. Disco Inferno Part 2

**Chapter Eight - Disco Inferno Part 2**

Rohan could do nothing as the enemy stand reached for Koichi. Luckily, he didn't have to, for Echoes Act 3 made sure the candle-headed stand wasn't about to hurt a single hair on its user's head.

" _ **THREE FREEZE!**_ "

The stand's arms fell to the ground and had become so heavy it nearly shattered the floor. It was a good thing the owner of the apartment was knocked unconscious, or else Rohan assumed he'd have to pay for the damages, or at least make Koichi pay.

The stand itself did not look as threatening on second glance. It had roughly the height and build of a young girl, only a head taller than Koichi himself because of the massive candle that formed out of its head. Its black and silver eyes were wide in panic, trying to lift its arms in vain.

"Whew, that was close," Koichi wiped his forehead. "Good thing my Echoes Act 3 is faster-"

"Koichi!" Rohan yelled. "Look at its hands!"

"Huh?" Koichi shot a glance at Rohan, then did as told. "What the...what on earth is _that_?"

In the stand's grip was a strange, puffy object that resembled a large wad of cotton with a series of smaller, rounder puffs that trailed like a tail, connected by nothing but air.

A thought bubble. As a manga artist, Rohan instantly recognized the object as something belonging in a comic book panel, but it was his first time seeing one in the three dimensional world.

"Is...that a cloud?" Koich pointed at the object, stuck in the stand's clenched fingers.

"Koichi-kun...it came out of you!" Rohan said.

"What?"

"You didn't see it, but the stand「pulled」it out of your ears before Echoes Act 3 froze it!"

Koichi swallowed nervously. "Are-are you serious? Is this its「ability」?"

Suddenly, the thought bubble began to lose its shape. Its surface stretched and distorted, its tails sinking into itself. Then, it expanded outward, growing into a large white shape that steadily changed color.

Inside the enlarged thought bubble came an image. An image that was familiar to both Rohan and Koichi, but had deeper emotional connections to the latter.

"Yu-Yukako?" Koich whispered. Even Rohan was shocked to see the bubble give rise to Yukako, or rather a mannequin-esque version of her. Only her upper half was fully formed, the rest coming out of the thought bubble's surface, merging with its cotton-like surface. She appeared like a bust out of a Greek art museum, her skin and school outfit colorless like an ancient statue, her face as blank as one. Only her hair had any semblance of life, its black tendrils waving in the air.

Love Deluxe lunged at Koichi.

"What the hell!" Koichi yelled as the strands of the Yukako doppelganger's hair ensnared him like a fish snatched up by the tentacles of a octopus.

"Echoes!"

" _ **KILL DA HO! ECHOES THREE FREEZE!~**_ " Echoes shouted. It clamped its fists together and slammed them down upon the fake Love Deluxe. The hair strands however weren't affected by Koichi's freeze ability like the candle-headed stand's arms was. It ensnared Echoes Act Three's arms.

"I-Impossible! Three Freeze didn't work!" Koichi was cut off as strands of hair ran across his mouth. He was lifted into the air like a child, along with his stand.

"Koichi...what were you thinking just a moment ago?!" Rohan shouted.

"Huh? What do you think I'm thinking about!" Koichi tried to speak through the hair. "I'm trying to not get attacked by a clone of my girlfriend!"

"No! I meant seconds before this attack!"

"Rohan, what the _hell_ are you on about!"

"Just answer me!"

"I...I was thinking of Yukako! And how's she's gonna kill me for forgetting to tell her Jotaro has sent me to Mitakihara!"

 _Damn, I knew it! I figured out its ability!_ Rohan immediately drew the connection between the thought bubble and the thing that had been summoned out of it. He had a hunch it had something to do with bringing thoughts to life, like that one episode of Tom and Jerry where Jerry pulled knives from his own thought bubble and hurled it at Tom. He had also read about Tibetan mystics and how they could create objects and beings out of pure thoughts. They were called tulpas if he remembered corrected.

The stand they were dealing with could pull the very thoughts out of a person and「create」 physical objects out of them not unlike tulpas. It was why Echoes Act Three's ability couldn't work on the construct of Yukako that Disco Inferno had created; thoughts had no weight. Meaning, it was an all around dangerous ability if went unchecked.

What if it pulled out thoughts of murder and violence? Would the thought bubble start creating guns, bombs, and poisonous gas?

Admittedly, a part of Rohan was curious to find that out, but the side of him that prevented him from being a complete asshole knew he had to use Heaven's Door to seal the ability before it goes out of control.

"Aagh!" Came Koichi's scream. Fake Yukako's hair wrapped around his squirming body, close to turning him into a black mummy. And so was Echoes.

"Hang on Koichi-kun!" Rohan shouted. He bolted towards the stand, Heaven's Door forming behind him. "Heaven's Doo-"

The fake Yukako suddenly flung Koichi and Echoes Act Three away. They flew out of Act Three's five meter range, causing its Freeze ability to instantly wear off and allowing Disco Inferno to freely move its arms again. Koichi bounced against the wall which caused the shelves to shake, and landed with a thud that practically knocked him out. It was a miracle the girl still hasn't stirred from the couch with all the chaos unfolding in her own home.

In more pressing matters, the candle-headed stand raised its arms and grabbed Heaven's Door by the throat. Rohan felt a pressure around his own throat, his breath reduced to chokes.

"S-Shit…" Rohan cursed. The stand raised its other hand and with subtle motions of its fingers, began to draw out a white shape to steadily come out of the mangaka's ear like a stage magician. Another thought bubble.

"Heaven's Door!" Rohan yelled and his stand grabbed ahold of the candle-head's arm. Heaven's Door was far from a physically strong stand, but its ability did not require strength, only touch. The candle-head stand's arm that was gripping Heaven's Door's throat unfurled into a series of pages formed from its kimono sleeve.

 **Disco Inferno.**

 **Ability: Has the power to make illusions a reality. Can pull out an organism's recent thoughts in the form of thought bubble shaped constructs. The thought bubbles can further give rise to solid objects that were a part of the thought, that can be otherwise touched or manipulated but lacking any real weight. However, to whoever touches them, it feels as if they have the same weight as the object it's supposed to be a copy of by default, though the user can manipulate the weight as necessary, making them heavier or lighter. The power of course cannot be used to pull out the thoughts of the user.**

Rohan read off the pages. He cursed again, as he had already deduced the stand's ability without even having to use Heaven's Door. The next part however, was important information.

 **Disco Inferno is a close-range type stand, but should the user be forcibly knocked unconscious, it becomes automatic, immediately pulling thoughts from nearby organisms as a means of defense to protect its user from harm by keeping anything it perceives as an enemy away. Once the user wakes, the stand will change back from automatic to close-range.**

 _A close range stand...that becomes automatic once the user is unconscious?_ Rohan was surprised. He had never heard of a stand like that. It broke every rule he knew about stands. In hindsight though, he guessed he really _shouldn't_ be surprised given how things like electrical towers and whatever the cat-flower hybrid living in the Nijimura household was were also considered stands.

The user was unconscious. Which meant all he needed to do was wake whoever was the user, who was undoubtedly hiding behind the door that Disco Inferno had emerged out of. A task easier said than done, for his stand often fared poorly against automatic stands, who had no singular thoughts but rather hardwired behaviors that he couldn't control by writing in commands. He had learned that much from having to deal with Highway Star and Cheap Trick, the latter of which he couldn't tell if it really went to Hell or not, or if Hell was even a real place.

However, with what he read from Disco Inferno, the eccentric mangaka had already deduced a glaring weakness.

"Stop." Rohan said to the stand. It cocked its head, staring at the mangaka like a curious owl. Rohan continued to speak in a severe tone. "If you pull out my thoughts and make a「something」out of it, then you'll come to regret it."

As expected, the stand didn't listen. It was automatic and couldn't heed a warning. It yanked the thought bubble free from Rohan's ears. Unlucky for it, Rohan just happened to think of something that would help him escape the very situation they were in.

Something that only went after things that looked a certain direction.

"Disco Inferno was it? I'd like you to meet the「ghost alleyway hands」! Something that's been stuck in my thoughts ever since!"

The thought bubble grew and spawned countless numbers of ghostly, pale hands reached out and grabbed Disco Inferno. The creature struggled against the pull of its new adversaries, but if the thought-construct was as powerful as Rohan had made it out out to be in his thoughts, then its struggles was in vain.

Of course, they weren't anywhere near the actual ghost alleyway in Morioh where the actual hands resided. They were in an apartment, and the hands only pulled those that looked a certain way in the physical alleyway. For constructs however, that didn't matter, as Rohan's thoughts were always in his「view」, which meant the stand staring back at him was orientated in the same exact「direction」 that would have been looking back at the part of the alleyway where you weren't supposed to if you wanted your soul intact.

Disco Inferno loosened its grip as the hands tugged away at its kimono, its arms and candle. They pulled the stand forward, out of the door. Rohan braced himself against the wall as the stand slid past, tumbling to the ground where the hands dropped it off, for the fake hands can only do so much and could not match up one-to-one with the genuine article. The bottom half of Disco Inferno's body revealed itself, previously obscured by the door. Its surreal lower half did not match its upper half at all, consisting entire front half of a horse covered in a diagonal white and black checkerboard pattern, its lower end connecting back to the stand's upper torso by a well placed, thick metallic cord.

The thought bubble that gave rise to the fake hands dissolved, and so did the hands it had created. The stand was steadily getting back up, its hooves levitating into the air.

"Damn! That was close. But nothing can get the best of Rohan Kishibe!" Rohan stopped gloating then bolted towards the bedroom door.

Only to be stopped as a shadow loomed upon him. He felt a weight being yanked from inside his very brain, out of his ears.

Then felt a new weight on his shoulder. He looked, and saw what resembled a dark, flattened foot there.

"T-This...this is," Rohan was reduced to stuttering, panic seizing his body. He couldn't help it. Like what happened to Dan Aykroyd's character in the original Ghostbusters, the thought sort of just popped in.

The feet that belonged to Highway Star, the very stand he was thinking about only seconds earlier. Both the hands and the feet were swarms of disembodied limbs that had the potential to put him in danger, and his mind, against his best wishes, made the connection too quickly.

More feet began to pour from a thought bubble levitating out of the corner of Rohan's peripheral vision. No, not levitating. It was being held by Disco Inferno.

"Y-You bastard!" Rohan collapsed, as he felt the strength leave his body along with his nutrients. Or rather it was more accurate to say his nutrients were intact, but his mind, having remembered every detail of Highway Star's initial encounter, made him feel as if he was being drained dry.

 _What...what a formidable stand…_

Even as his muscles became heavy as lead, even as his body grew weaker by every passing second, Rohan pushed forward, his steadily numbing fingers reaching for the knob of the door, to awaken Disco Inferno's slumbering user.

His arm dropped. He had absolutely no strength left to even lift a pinkie. His vision began to cloud and it seemed he was going to be knocked out himself...or worse. He didn't want his manga put on hiatus again.

And...it looks like it didn't have to, as streams of golden ribbons shot through the air and ensnared Disco Inferno, causing it to crush the thought bubble in its claw, forcing the feet to flicker out of existence.

Rohan glanced behind him. The girl, Mami Tomoe, was awake. And behind her was a ghostly being with a peppermint face and a large circular headpiece. Her stand, floating behind its user as she stood defiant and proud.

"I don't know what's going on or who you guys are, but I'm not going to have a familiar attack a defenseless human. Least of all in my own home!"

 _Defenseless? Who the hell does she think she is, calling the great Rohan Kishi-_

Rohan halted his massive ego from going any further, as the girl's stand yanked back Disco Inferno with the strands of ribbon shot from its fingers. Perhaps he could appreciate the help of a fifteen year old after all. At least she wasn't Josuke, and her hair was miles better than a crappy out-of-style pompadour despite its strange drill shapes.

Mami willed forth more ribbons, but this time from the magical abilities Rohan read about. She created rifles out of them and was about to fire at Disco Inferno.

"Wait! Don't!" Rohan yelled. He suddenly remembered a tiny yet important fact that he read within Mami's pages, particularly the different between a regular stand user and one that was a magical girl. Something he glossed over in his frenzy to read everything about Mami Tomoe and the world of magical girls, wishes and miracles.

Mami didn't listen in time. She pulled the trigger, the bullet grazing the cuff of Disco Inferno's kimono. It missed and hit the wall.

Her aim was thrown off by a sudden bout of weakness. Mami fell to her knees. She became hard of breathing.

Half of her stand crumbled away, its right arm and leg, and even a bit of its torso breaking apart like rocks. It spoke. "S-H-I-T."

"W-what is happening?" Mami said. Rohan could visibly see she was beginning to breath heavier and sweat, as if breathing itself became a chore. Her limbs became shaky and she slightly slouched.

The gem on her head, a soul gem according to Mami's face pages, was getting dark.

Magical girls were in danger of turning into witches. But a magical girl stand user can never turn into a witch, for her stand _was_ her witch form evolved into a more powerful, and obedient state. No matter how black a magical girl stand user's gem became, she will never become a witch. A useful ability...but one with a tradeoff.

A magical girl's stand and her magical abilities shared the same source of energy. And when that source began to dry up, when the gem became darker and darker, she lost more power. Eventually, if the gem turns completely back and energy is completely drained, the user is left weakened and defenseless, like a ripple user that had trouble breathing. In Mami's case, she had used a lot of both magic and her stand abilities in the fight with Aimi Aozora, meaning her well was close to being dry.

"Don't use your magic! You'll weaken yourself!" Rohan shouted, gaining Mami's panicked attention. "You're going to experience a「stand crash」!"

"W-What?" Mami said.

"S-H-I-T. The weird looking twink with the broken eggshell across his head is correct master." Silk Degrees said. Rohan found it weird its colloquialisms were similar to Koichi's stand. It continued to explain what Rohan was trying to. "You've used up a lot of magic for your tiro finale and other abilities...and I've used up a lot of the same「same inner strength」when fighting those spiders. I'm breaking apart…

"What do you mean you're breaking apart?!" Mami yelled.

"It means master…" Silk Degrees' other arm crumbled away. "We're running out of power."

Disco Inferno reached out and grabbed Silk Degrees by the head, cupping its face with its palms. Mami froze, unable to do anything. Rohan was steadily gaining his strength after the facsimile of Highway Star that had attacked him was gone, but he feared it was going to be too late to do anything.

"Uh oh," Silk Degrees said as Disco Inferno began to drag Mami's thoughts out of her stand. Rohan knew by now it could be only a thought within the last few seconds or at least fresh in one's mind, hence the "recent" part, but whatever it was it couldn't be good.

And for once, he did not want to be right. The stand pulled out the very opponent that the girl had just finished fighting. It had pulled out clones of Aimi Aozora's stand, Spiders from Mars, from the thought bubble yanked free of Mami's mind.

Mami screamed out. "You gotta be kidding me!"

Rohan was stuck on the floor. The strength had yet to return to his legs and his Heaven's Door's range did not allow him to get over to the struggling magical girl in time.

"Quick!" Rohan yelled out. Mami turned to him. "The stand is using your thoughts as a weapon! Think of something else immediately!"

Mami looked at the mangaka in panic.

"S-H-I-T. I'd listen to him master," Silk Degrees interrupted.

"Wha-hold on! This is a stand?"

"Of course it is!" Rohan replied.

The spiders began to crawl out of the bubble, their lower ends nothing more than tendrils coming from the bubble's surface like umbilical cords. They began to slither towards Silk Degree's face, which was in the midst of cracking and threatening to blow away into the wind like its other body parts.

"But Aimi was defeated! Whose stand does this belong to!?"

"I don't know! It's only active now and attacking because the user is unconscious! If we can find and 「wake」the user, the stand should stop attacking!"

An air of calmness came over Mami, something Rohan did not expect to see. Her eyes sparkled with realization and she stopped her panicked tone.

"The user is...unconscious you say? Now that I think about it, the「candle」looked familiar. I should've known. I think that I know who the「user」is now, and I can「think」of the perfect way to awaken her."

 _Her? She specifically referred to the user as 'her'. Does she know who Disco Inferno's user is?_ Rohan thought. Then he remembered something he read about that he had forgotten about in the commotion.

Mami Tomoe's friend was the one pierced by the arrow in her apartment's bedroom. The very room Disco Inferno had emerged out of.

The spiders abruptly retracted back into the thought bubble and other objects began to emerge in their place.

Cakes. Strawberry shortcakes by the looks of it. A plate replaced each spider, dangling out of the thought bubble still in Disco Inferno's grip.

Rohan did not understand at all why the girl would be thinking of her stomach at a moment like this.

"Hey mister, you just said I need to think of something else right?" Mami picked up a plate and waved it in front of Disco Inferno, which stared at it as if in a trance, as if it had become confused as to what it had just created. The magical girl then smiled a confident smile. "How about I think of something that can wake my friend up?"

She then cupped her gloved hand against her lips and shouted loud enough for the whole apartment to hear her. "HEY KYOKO! "I've got some FREE CAKE here if you want it!"

Rohan couldn't believe it, but Disco Inferno began to shiver and shake as if consumed by an epileptic seizure, its eyes enlarging, its cross-hair irises dilating like that of a lizard's. It began to scrunch up, doing a fetal position while it levitated. Then a bright red aura enveloped it, and its entire body vanished in lines of light that entered through the bedroom door only inches away from Rohan.

Not a second later did the door suddenly slam open, hitting Rohan directly in the face.

"Did someone say... _cake!?"_

A girl's voice came from the other side of the door. Rohan, with his face throbbing with the pain, could only think of throttling the owner of said voice.

Out stepped the user of the stand, a girl who was around Mami's age and was characterized by long, crimson hair done in a lengthy ponytail. She wore a green jacket and shorts, and ran towards the cake held in Mami's hand like a fish being drawn to bait. A single fang poked out from her drooling mouth.

She stepped mindlessly towards the cake like some sort of dazed zombie, her eyes twinkling with hunger right up to the point where the cake vanished into puffs of white, almost cartoonish smoke, the last traces of Disco Inferno's ability gone.

The girl blinked. "Hey where did the cake go-" She stopped, her eyes widening upon recognition of Mami standing in front her. "Eh? Mami? What are you-"

Without warning, Mami ran forward and hugged Kyoko. The redhead was taken aback, while tears welled at the corner of the blonde's eyes.

"I thought I'd lost you Kyoko…when the arrow hit you..."

Kyoko didn't return her friend's affections. She brushed her off and scoffed. "Hey hey hey, who gave ya permission to get close to me?" She glared, her red eyes turning cold, her voice becoming firm and harsh. "Have you forgotten about our past? You think we can be friends together again...just like that? Life ain't that easy."

She turned a cold shoulder to Mami. She pouted like a kid refusing to eat her vegetables. "I didn't need your help. I could've handled those spiders on my own."

She walked away, leaving Mami with an expression wandering the line between baffled and a sullenness, as if deep down she knew that this would happen although she tried to hope for better. Then, she stopped at the doorway and did an impossible head tilt over her shoulder.

"But thanks though." Kyoko said. Rohan could have sworn he saw a light smile on the redhead's face before a red dress replaced her jacket and shorts, and she leapt out into the night.

Mami too smiled. Rohan smiled as well, not because it was a touching scene for he had seen so many dramatic scenes in other manga that it had become cliche. He smiled, because it meant the magical girl was distracted, giving him the perfect opportunity to steal the rock fragment from her bedroom.

He was glad his conscience didn't hold him back from trying to steal from a young girl. However, he had to remind himself that what he was going to steal did not belong to Mami. One could say it belonged to Jotaro-san and the Speedwagon Foundation, but really, something as dangerous as a rock fragment that can grant stands shouldn't belong to anyone. He had to get it out of the girl's apartment and get out as fast as possible.

He also cursed that he couldn't do anything about Koichi, who was still knocked out, in the limited time given. He reckoned Koichi-kun, the only guy he considered a true friend, could find his own way back later.

His strength returning, Rohan crawled on his knees inside the bedroom. It was as if a miniature demolition crew blew through the area. Wood and debris was scattered everywhere, though only a few managed to dirty the bed and its high quality sheets. The carpet had ripped away in a part of the floor, exposing the gaping hole that was beneath it. A dented metal door lay beside the hole, seemingly ripped off the hinges of the compartment.

And in the center of the floor was a piece of green rock.

"Ha! Jackpo-"

A shadow loomed over Rohan. Followed by the feeling of cold metal being pressed against the nape of his neck.

"Thanks for the tip earlier. Now I know to conserve my energy for the next shot. And I won't need my stand for it. Plus...it doesn't take magic for just one bullet, and since you aren't a witch or familiar, I'm sure one is enough."

Rohan slowly craned his head around and stared into the face of a particularly unhappy Mami glaring angrily right back at him. She was clearly in a foul mood, and clearly ready to pull the trigger.

"Tell me you who you are... _right now_."

Rohan said. "Hey...what would people think if you shot Rohan Kishibe, the magnificent and eccentric author of the critically acclaimed manga Pink Dark Boy that had thrilled readers from everywhere except America because those idiots don't understand the subtleties of my work?"

Rohan felt Mami press the gun down harder.

"I don't read that much manga. That's something Sayaka would do. I'm more of an anime person."

 _Damn it! She's an anime-only, the one true weakness of mangaka everywhere! She's never heard of me!_ Rohan nearly bit his lip until he had to remind himself that was something only Josuke did.

"That ability...to turn people into「books」. You're another stand user! A guy too, and not a magical girl! I want to know what you are doing here in Mitakihara!"

A second shadow loomed over them both...one that was shorter than Mami's. It seemed the magical girl wasn't aware of the little super saiyan sneaking up behind her.

Rohan decided to play it cool. "I... _refuse_."

"What?" Mami was taken aback.

Rohan then shouted.

"Koichi-kun! Knock her out now!"

Koichi stood in the doorway. He had recovered from slamming against the wall, but to Rohan's utter shock, he stood there and didn't make the girl heavy or anything like that. He merely stared at Rohan with a dumb expression.

"Knock her out? Why would I do that to someone in their own apartment!"

Mami nearly jumped, surprised by Koichi's voice. She whirled around, pointing the gun that had been meant for Rohan right at Koichi's hapless face.

"Eh!?" Koichi screamed out, his eyes widening, his hands raised high as if he was being arrested.

"Koichi-kun you idiot! Use Three Freeze on her now!"

"Wait!" Koichi waved his arms frantically in front of Mami's rifle. "My name is Koichi Hirose! Down there is Rohan Kishibe, famous manga artist! We're on a mission from the Speedwagon Foundation to collect all the meteorite fragments that are scattered around town which gives people stand powers!"

Mami smiled, then made her rifle vanish. She looked down back at Rohan. "See? That wasn't so hard was it?"

She then walked past Koichi, turning her back to Rohan and Koichi and leaving the two gawk at her as she made her magical girl outfit disappear, revealing the beige school uniform she wore underneath. She glanced back over her shoulder with the same impossible head tilt demonstrated by her red haired friend.

"Now, would you boys like some tea?"

Rohan, who stood up, exchanged an awkward, confused glance with Koichi. They didn't answer before Mami retreated into the kitchen.

She stuck her head out and looked at Rohan cheekily. "By the way, if you really are a famous manga, then I expect you to be able to pay for the damages done to my apartment. That's fair, isn't it?"

Rohan only stuttered. He already had to pay off the damages for his own house after it burned down, which meant he was going to be in bigger debt than before. He already had to give up his Sailor Moon figures, Led Zeppelin paper sleeve, and his Rurouni Kenshin paraphernalia all for what was undoubtedly that slimeball, hamburger-headed Josuke's fault. Now, adding the damages done to the magical girl's apartment, he was definitely in need of more revenue than what his manga sales can cover. Perhaps starting an Italian language course using his Heaven's Door's abilities, like what he did with Koichi when he went to Italy. He always liked Italy. They understood the subtleties of his work.

"Holy crap," he heard a dumbfounded Koichi whisper. "She really is a magical girl!"

"Damn it Koichi...I told you my Heaven's Door never lies." Rohan muttered.

Although, it made the mangaka wonder now if witches and monsters that live inside television sets were real. However...that only meant he had more inspirational material for Purple Bright Girl, and he couldn't help but grin childishly at that.

Looks like the rumor was true, and his stay in Mitakihara was going to be more exciting than he thought...as well as possibly more dangerous than he could have ever imagined.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Stand Name:** Disco Inferno

 **User:** Kyoko Sakura

 **Namesake:** Disco Inferno (The Trammps song)

 **Formerly:** Ophelia

 **Stats:**

Destructive Power - B (D when in autopilot mode)

Speed - A (D when in autopilot mode)

Range - D (A when in autopilot mode)

Durability - C (D when in autopilot mode)

Precision - A (D when in autopilot mode)

Development Potential - A

 **Abilities:**

Thought creation:

Disco Inferno can draw forth thought-bubble shaped objects from organisms and produce solid objects based on what was recently thought. The thoughts it can use can only be recent thoughts, anything within the past ten seconds or so. The stand cannot use this ability on its own user.

Autopilot:

Should the user be forcibly knocked unconscious in any way, Disco Inferno goes into "autopilot" where it becomes a long range, automatic stand. The drawback is that in this mode, the stand's stats decrease with regards to destructive power, speed, and precision but gains in range and durability. This ability does not activate if the user goes to sleep naturally i.e taking a nap, or outright dies.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** This is going to be the last chapter that's going to be out for a while. Work is going to pick up soon and I expect to be doing 12 AM to 2 AM work days (yeah...it's that kinda job). I'll be extremely busy for what I'd estimate to be three months, so think of this as a notice for what is essentially a three-month hiatus. I'll try to update if I can, but really there is no guarantees depending on how hectic things get.

Thanks for those bearing with my work schedule. I am grateful as always for those that continue to read my fic. Cheers and a happy New Year.


	9. Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 1

**Chapter Nine - Homulilly's Twisted Sister part 1**

Dr. Feelgood let out a sigh as she entered her unlit living room, tired from a long night of mending bones with her innate vampire abilities. She carried a large brown bag of groceries with her, though they weren't for her.

She flicked on a light and a small furry shape jumped from atop a cabinet and scurried to her feet. Most people would have expected to be greeted by a housecat, but Bon-Jyubey was no housecat.

"Hello Bon-Jyubey," Dr. Feelgood reached down and patted her creation on the head.

"Guh-huhhuhuhu...greetings Lord Feelgood-sama." Bon-Jyubey spoke, not with its deformed mouth which made it impossible to speak, but with its mind.

The end result of merging a zombie with one of the extra bodies left behind by Kyubey, Bon-Jyubey was an experiment in trying to see if the power of the stone mask and incubator biology were compatible with each other. Half of his body was like that of Kyubey, covered in white fur. Half of his face was round and cute with half a smile and a single beady eye. The other half was that of a horrid, monstrous form, with a glowing red slit for an eye and rows of fangs jutting out of the second half of its maw, too big to fit into its mouth proper and dangling outwards like the teeth of an anglerfish. As a whole, he resembled two creatures of opposite extremes cut in half and subsequently sewn together. His voice reflected that, made of two voices overlapping each other, one high-pitched like Kyubey's, the other deep, guttural and demonic.

Bon-Jyubey was the only zombie minion Dr. Feelgood allowed herself to have. Her ever royal servant and her closest ally in town. One that needed feeding like any other pet, but cat chow wasn't going to cut it.

"Hang on a second," Dr. Feelgood reached into her grocery bag and pulled out a severed arm belonging to the girl she had just finished draining an hour ago, sliced off before she turned into a zombie. Bon-Jyubey stared at the arm hungrily, licking his deformed lips.

"Oh!" Feelgood threw the arm towards the far wall of her living room. She liked toying with the half-dead zombie incubator. "Oops!"

Bon-Jyubey moved with a swiftness that was expected of a large jungle cat, his tiny legs pushing his body through the air like a torpedo. He bounced off a wall and angled himself towards the arm, snatching it into his jaws. He landed back on the floor and began to munch on the girl's arm.

"Now then…" Dr. Feelgood turned to her feeding minion. "...how's our「guest」?"

Bon-Jyubey swallowed a strip of flesh, then nodded towards his master. "Guhuhuhuhuh...she's still in the basement Feelgood-Sama."

Dr. Feelgood grinned, letting a fang poke through. "「Good」!"

She put the rest of the groceries down, which was meant for the person she kept captive in the basement. A person that has been a thorn in her side ever since she arrived in town...and not as a vampire either. A leftover from the days when she was a witch.

"You wait here Bon-Jyubey."

Bon-Jyubey didn't heed her words. He was too busy gnawing on the arm that was his supper.

* * *

The vampire made her way to a large metal door that sat in the garage where her sedan was parked. It had various bolts and locks, as if designed to keep more than burglars out...or to keep something from escaping.

Dr. Feelgood unbolted the door and stepped in. The interior of her secret chamber had walls made of dark stone and held wooden torches instead of regular lights. It was a place practically stripped from a medieval castle. The long flight of stairs led downward, to a second door which led into the room where her special guest was kept. A door made of a bulletproof alloy that could withstand even the explosion from a grenade or rocket. A necessary precaution to keep any thoughts of escape from slipping into her guest's mind.

Dr. Feelgood picked a torch from the wall and made her way slowly down the stairs until she reached that second door. She fished out a key from her pocket, large and made of brass, and unfastened the lock, then stepped inside.

The shadows squirmed away from the rays of light from her torch. The air was cool, just enough so it wouldn't be too cold for a human to survive in reasonable health. She needed her guest to be in perfect condition for what she was planning.

That was why there were heart monitors connected to her guest, who was tied down with metal chains across a hospital bed taken from Mitakihara General Hospital. A tray of soup lay on a tray, mostly uneaten and cold due to the guest refusing to eat, and often having to be force fed.

Dr. Feelgood whistled. "You awake...Homura Akemi?"

No response. The guest was playing tricks again. She went further into the chamber and noticed that the bed was empty, the chains undone. The heart monitor was at a flatline, not connected to anything.

A clicking noise came from behind.

Dr. Feelgood sighed and shook her head, cold vapor leaving her lips. "Of course...I should've known…"

A bullet collided into the back of her skull.

* * *

Homura had forgotten how long she'd been waiting for the moment to escape her captor. When the door first cracked open, when the first rays of torchlight spilled upon her face, she sprung into action.

Originally, Walpurgisnacht had taken her soul gem, left it with that monstrous, mutated incubator of hers. Said incubator was ordered to keep an eye on her until its master got back everyday. Every. Single. Day.

However, today was different. Today, Walpurgisnacht made a mistake. Today, Homura awoke to the sight of her soul gem on the tray right next to her bed.

Walpurgisnacht must have left it there by accident, proving to the magical girl that her seemingly inhuman opponent had very human flaws. The chains made it hard to reach for it at first, but through hours of struggling she managed, and not a moment too soon before her captor entered the chamber.

She wasted no time in transforming into a magical girl and stopping time, making short work of the chains. Walpurgisnacht had already walked in, and the magical girl merely took the opportunity to walk behind her. She pulled out a handgun, one of many firearms tucked away inside her shield, and fired a shot that landed right on the back of her captor's head.

Walpurgisnacht fell forward, blood trailing from the back of her head. Homura then stopped time and quickly turned around before the witch can recover. For she knew that a bullet wasn't enough, and that although the monster she has been fighting for several timelines has somehow obtained a human appearance, she was anything but.

Homura made it to the open door, before a sound that struck fear in her heart reached her ears. The sound of Walpurgisnacht's new ability activating. The sound of a dubstep rip.

" _ **IRON MAIDEN!"**_

The world vanished instantly into a distorted haze and Homura found herself tumbling face forward onto dirty, rain stained concrete.

"N-No...not again…" Homura's voice was choked with panic as she picked herself up and noticed the immediate changes her body. She was no longer a magical girl but a frail human being with a heart condition that she had thought had been cured by magic. She could feel the glasses on her face, and the steadily worsening vision of her eyes had she not had them. She glanced down, and saw that her magical girl outfit was gone, replaced by that of a standard Mitakihara school uniform. She couldn't feel an ounce of magic in her body, nothing to power her time magic, as if the latter never existed.

The world changed as much as she did. She wasn't in the dungeon of Walpurgisnacht's home but rather in a scene that had been burned permanently in her mind.

A destroyed Mitakihara. Floating ruins that were formerly skyscrapers. A sky covered in thick layers of dark grey fog. And most horrifying of all...Madoka Kaname's unconscious body on the ground in front of her.

"No no no... _not_ again…"

The only thing missing was the large silhouette floating at the center of it all in the sky above. Instead, it was only empty sky.

The familiar cackling was there, though coming from a much smaller source than expected. A source from behind her.

A shadow loomed over her.

Before Homura could even glance back in time, an invisible force lifted her into the air by the cuff of her uniform. Invisible fingers wrapped around her neck, each feeling like cold metal or brass. She squirmed in its grip in pain, then opened her eyes to see Walpurgisnacht staring at her.

"My my my...did you really think you can escape that easily?"

Walpurgisnacht, formerly a powerful witch, had assumed the form of a beautiful bespectacled woman clad in a doctor's coat, its collar dotted with gears. A purple haired beauty that hid a monstrous nature underneath. She acted as if she hadn't been shot at all, going so far as to ignore the blood that trickled down the nape of her neck and stained her hair.

"Y-you…" Homura growled. She glared at her assailant from beneath her glasses. She wished she could fight back, but she felt no more power in her veins, no more magic she could use. It was as if she had never became a magical girl in the first place, though she knew it was the doing of the witch's new ability. She couldn't stop time.

A blow landed in her stomach, causing her to spit out. Her head went reeling as the world returned to the way it was before.

Iron Maiden, the creature that had struck her, became visible after the vision of Mitakihara was gone, levitating behind what was most obviously its master. It resembled a smaller, humanoid version of the Walpurgisnacht she was familiar with, its eyeless grinning face a reflection of the new Walpurgisnacht's twisted personality. It promptly vanished before Homura could get a better look at it.

"Akemi-san...haven't you learned by now? Your paltry bullets and puny weapons can't do anything to me. Not then, not now...not _ever_ …" Walpurgisnacht...or Dr. Feelgood as she liked to call herself, reached back and parted her hair. There were wet sounds of flesh soft being dug into as she pulled free a hand with blood-stained fingers, clenched around the dented bullet that Homura had fired. She let it freely drop.

Homura lay crumpled on the floor, on her side clutching her stomach which stung from the blow. She could only stare up at her assailant as she was still recovering from Iron Maiden's punch. Her head was spinning and she was in no condition to try and make use of her time magic even though she had it now. She was certain Dr. Feelgood and whatever Iron Maiden was will get to her before she could even blink anyway. As loathe as she was to admit, their reflexes were miles better than hers, which were only human.

"You probably didn't know I could do that…" Dr. Feelgood glowered, her eyes glowing an unnatural red beneath the shadows of the holding cell. "...that I can「enter」the timeline of anyone that is within the range of my Iron Maiden during the「replaced time」. But now that you know...your time magic is useless against me!"

The former witch arched her back at an impossible degree and stretched her arms out. She began to cackle like her Iron Maiden. "Useless useless useless useless useless useless useless!"

"What...what are you?" Homura said, wincing through the pain.

"What am I? I'm the one going to make this town mine Homura Akemi...and you're going to help me. It's why I gave you your soul gem back this morning."

Homura spat a bloody loogie into Dr. Feelgood's face. The latter closed an eye and snarled in annoyment.

"I'll never help you!"

She found the strength she needed, and whipped out a submachine gun from her shield. Dr. Feelgood did not look surprised at all, merely amused. Homura pulled the trigger.

" _Guhuhuhuhuhu! Feelgood-sama_!"

That damn incubator. It leapt over Homura from the open doorway and landed itself right in front of the stream of bullets being belched out from her weapon. Its hideous form rendered even more unsightly by the holes that littered its body, reduced to a lump of pulpy meat that plopped to the floor. A black, oily substance leaked out from each of the holes, creating a pool beneath the creature.

"Damn!"

The submachine gun clicked empty. A black arm grabbed Homura's shooting arm from behind before she could pull the trigger again. Another wrapped itself around her neck. It was Dr. Feelgood's other ally; Elsa Maria, a creature made of solid shadow, with tendrils for hair.

"Whoa kiddo...calm down there," Elsa Maria said. It squeezed its claw around Homura's wrist with overwhelming pressure, causing her to yell and drop the submachine gun from her grasp.

Like Iron Maiden, Elsa Maria was a more humanlike version of a witch Homura knew from her past, or more accurately from any of the countless timelines she experienced. In this case, it was the witch that Sayaka Miki slaughtered in a crazed, despair induced state, only now transformed into a smaller yet more powerful form by whatever strange force had turned Walpurgisnacht into a human and gave her Iron Maiden.

"I can't allow you to shoot up that nice lady right there alright? She's a doctor y'know. A licensed medical professional and everything!"

"Oh...cut the bullshit Elsa Maria," Dr. Feelgood cleaned her hands off with a handkerchief nearby and wiped Homura's loogie from her forehead. She then made a show of rubbing her long, elegant pianist fingers. "I could've handled this brat myself. I've been doing so for lord knows how long now."

"Hey, I'm just looking out for my investment," Elsa Maria said. "But I suppose if I let her shoot you a couple of times, I can see for myself if a body granted by the stone mask is worthy of my services."

"Really?" Dr. Feelgood mocked. "Did you not see me pull the goddamn bullet out of the back of my skull?"

"Heh heh...I suppose you are right." Elsa Maria replied.

Homura struggled to break free from Elsa Maria's grip, but its strength, although lower than Iron Maiden's (a fact that Homura had a displeasure of finding out), was still more than a match for a magical girl's.

She stopped struggling when Dr. Feelgood loomed over her, her hands in her coat pockets. She reached out and grabbed Homura's cheeks and chin with her fingers, gently caressing them with her nails. The former witch's flesh was cold to the touch, causing Homura to feel a sense of revulsion. She tried to look away, but with a flick of the wrist Dr. Feelgood simply forced her to look back.

"Now then Homura Akemi...the reason I「gave」you your「soul gem」back is because there's 「someone」in town that I realized may have the「potential」to grow into something「dangerous」 . A fact that was overlooked on my part." Dr. Feelgood grinned. "A fact that I need 「you」to correct...by assassinating them. I figured your magical girl powers can help in that regard."

"Go find your own hitman," Homura snapped. "I'm not killing anyone for a _monster_ like you."

Dr. Feelgood lifted the fingers from Homura's face. She nodded slowly, then paced around the room, her back turning to Homura.

"I suppose you are right," Dr. Feelgood looked past her shoulder with a head tilt. "There's no way you'd ever agree to killing Madoka Kaname."

Elsa Maria laughed softly beside her. Homura's eyes went wide in horror. The words were lodged in her throat, and she had to force them out. "W-What?"

Dr. Feelgood turned away. "When Elsa Maria told me the name at first...I couldn't place my finger on why it sounded so familiar. Then I remembered it was the brat that you were always dying to protect whenever I was around town as a witch. Could it be that「fate」is「aligning itself again」?"

She turned back to Homura and jabbed a finger at her. "The truth of the matter is that your friend has gained a formidable「stand ability」 without even being a magical girl! Under ordinary circumstances, I would see that as nothing too special... but she's already fought and defeated another user despite having only received her stand for a short while…"

" _Guhuhuhuhuhuhu…"_

The voice belonged to Bon-Jyubey, the deformed incubator. It had appeared across the tray besides the bed in the room, free from any bullet holes and standing as if it had never been attacked or slain. That did nothing to remove its corpse on the ground, which was now essentially a clone. She turned her attention back to Dr. Feelgood when the former witch suddenly took a step closer.

"I need Madoka Kaname dead before her powers can develop further and pose a threat to my own. I need to end her before she grows into a threat that will disturb my「quiet life」. But I'm not about to expose my existence for that purpose."

Dr. Feelgood's lips then curled into a sinister smile that almost appeared like the grin permanently etched across that of Iron Maiden. What she said next made Homura shudder.

"What better person to assassinate her...then the person trying to protect her all this time? You, Homura Akemi. You will be the one to end your best friend's life...because frankly, I can't be bothered to get my hands dirty."

"You're insane…"Homura said fiercely. Her eyes flared with rage. "As if I would ever do that!"

"Oh you will...but not of your own「free will」."

Dr. Feelgood's hair began to undo itself, as if each strand had a mind of its own. They grew and sprouted slimy tentacles, each ending in a barbed tip surrounded by a ring of sharp teeth.

Panic, revulsion and horror seized Homura's heart. She knew Dr. Feelgood was a monster, but only now did she realize what she was dealing with was a bigger monster than all those she had faced, a bigger monster that even the old Walpurgisnacht. A devil, an abomination not of this world, borrowing a human shape.

"Holy shit!" Elsa Maria released Homura. It was surprised, now becoming aware that the woman its user had worked for was more inhuman than it must have imagined. It fell backward, half sinking into the shadow it had cast with its body.

"After I put a「flesh bud」on you," Dr. Feelgood said, her hair-tentacles wiggling in the air. The shadows they cast obscured her features completely, making her glowing red eyes the only thing visible. "I won't need to do any more convincing."

Homura reached for her shield. A tentacle was faster, its tip plunged deep into Homura's forehead before she could even blink.

Her vision faded to black.

* * *

 **Next Day at School**

Madoka Kaname walked to school as usual, but her mind was heavy with thoughts. She was worried if Mami Tomoe was alright given what happened last night, and wondered if her recurring series of dreams was trying to clue her in on something important.

Just last night she had another dream as strange the one where she was crushed by a steamroller. One where she was laying on the ground of a half destroyed Mitakihara, steadily crumbling into ruins, and where a familiar looking girl was being held up by a terrifying, eyeless, smiling horned doll in a purple dress, a dark silhouette standing behind it. That girl happened to be the girl she met in her dreams before she did in real life. Homura Akemi. Only the Homura Akemi in the dream this time wasn't exactly like the one she had met. The dream Homura had her long hair tied in two long braids, wore glasses and seemed more frail, more delicate and frightened than the Homura that introduced herself in class that one fateful day she learned magical girls and witches existed. And then there was the silhouette standing behind the monster, which had something sinister...and familiar...about it.

Distracted by her thoughts, Madoka accidentally bumped into Sayaka without knowing.

"Gah!" Sayaka yelled. Her school bag flew from her shoulders, the contents inside beginning to spill out. Madoka instantly reacted. Endless Dream's arms flung out, quickly creating an uncertainty field around the bag and the pens and pencils coming out of it. Instantly, all the possibilities of the bag was displayed as flickering clones, before the field faded and all of the bags collapsed back into one bag that was still across Sayaka's shoulder.

"Eh? What happened?" Sayaka, confused, looked to Madoka for answer.

Madoka smiled shyly. "I've been practicing with my Endless Dream. It's pretty fast. Even though I can control it, I can barely follow its movements at all."

"Wow Madoka!" Sayaka beamed. "Forget about being a magical girl. You're a real superhero at this point!"

"Ah really?" Madoka giggled and placed her hand behind her head. "Well...I wouldn't go that far…"

"And superheroes need supervillains to fight right?" Sayaka said. A wry grin formed across her lips. "Like those other girls with weird punch ghosts."

"Huh? You mean like with Eri?"

"Yeah!" Sayaka exclaimed, pounding a fist on her palm. "Exactly! Who knows how many more of these punch ghost users are out there! They're more threatening than the witch that Mami fought, that's for sure! They can actually think...and no one can see them coming! No one knows who they are, and they can be your neighbor...or the girl you sit besides on the bus! Or..."

"Sayaka…" Madoka interrupted her friend before she could get any more ideas. "...even if there is more of them out there…I don't think it's right to assume that all of them are bad. And I'm certainly not going to go around picking fights for no rhyme or reason."

"Ah...I guess you're right," Sayaka said. "I s'pose you're too nice for that kind of stuff."

The school bell rang.

"Oh shoot! Time to go to class!" Sayaka said. Madoka followed.

* * *

Madoka usually began class by listening to Kazuko Saotome, the teacher, begin a tirade due to her less than fortunate love life. A daily occurrence given how Saotome-sensei seemed to have bad luck with the guys. Today, she had chosen to harass Nakazawa-kun per usual.

"Alright Nakazawa-kun! What do you think!?" Saotome-sensei raised her voice. Nakazawa-kun stirred in his seat.

"H-huh?" Nakazawa-kun nervously said, obviously not having paid attention.

"Well...what do you think? Should the toilet paper be rolled over or under?" Saotome-sensei narrowed her eyes on her student.

"Does...does that really matter?" came Nakazawa-kun's reply.

"Of course it does! If a man leaves the paper rolled over, it shows he has no disregard for your home or rules!"

Madoka could hear Sayaka chuckle softly beside her. "Heh...she's at it again."

Saotome-sensei continue to rattle on. Madoka droned out most of it, her mind wondering where Mami Tomoe or Homura Akemi was. Both of their seats were empty.

Then, the door opened.

"Ah! Sorry I'm late…"

It was Homura Akemi. The beautiful transfer student's lengthy raven hair blew across her shoulders like waves, her complexion glittering. She was smiling, something she didn't do when she was first introduced to the class. The whole class fell silent, enamored by that radiant smile, by the transfer student's breathtaking presence that bordered on the fabulous. It was as if everyone was seeing her for the first time, despite having seen her before.

It was as if she was a different person.

"Oh...Akemi-san!" Saotome-sensei said. "You're not late at all. I'm just giving boys a lesson on how to become decent men once they grow up!"

Homura smiled again. "Well Saotome-sensei, I hope they take your words to heart. A gentleman is hard to come by, wouldn't you agree?"

"Huh? Akemi-san...are you feeling alright?" Even Saotome-sensei was surprised. Homura was usually aloof, some would say even cold, and wasn't known for the strange charisma her personality was giving off now.

"Of course...I've never felt better…" Her smile stretched wider.

Then she glared at Madoka Kaname. Their eyes met.

"What a beautiful morning...wouldn't you say Kaname-san?"

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	10. Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 2

**Chapter Ten - Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 2**

With the early morning sunlight raining down his back, Rohan Kishibe sat in wait behind a bush, giddy with excitement. A string twirled was around one of his fingers, the other end of which was attached to a branch propping up a wooden crate at a slant. A shoddily made animal trap of sorts, the kind meant to ensnare hapless critters like bunnies or squirrels.

But it wasn't a bunny or squirrel that Rohan was planning on catching. It was a very special animal that couldn't be found in any textbook. An animal whose existence the mangaka had only recently heard about from resident magical girl Mami Tomoe, who was still in her apartment giving Koichi an inventory of all the damages done to her apartment (the latter of who Rohan had to coerce into doing the favor for him, without the need of Heaven's Door of course).

Rohan needed to capture this animal for his inspiration, for this animal was none other than what Mami referred to as "Kyubey-san", a creature responsible for turning regular girls into magical ones. If he wanted to learn more about the world of magical girls, then Rohan Kishibe needed to capture this so-called Kyubey, then use Heaven's Door to get as much information from him as possible. He needed this creature for his inspiration.

He had the perfect bait too. A grief seed, a dark object shaped like a bulb with a sharp point, its insides hollowed out with an ornate design, was placed inside the crate that formed the main body of his trap, basking in its shadow. He "borrowed" the seed from Mami when she wasn't looking, which he figured was alright considering he was paying her for apartment damages anyway.

"Alright Mr. Kyubey, let's see what you look like…" Rohan whispered.

"That trap is not going to work you know," A voice spoke beside him. Rohan blinked, then looked down to his side.

The speaker was a strange, furry creature with the basic body plan of a cat, with a long bushy tail that was bigger than its body. It had an oversized round head which it tilted amusingly at Rohan, its tiny mouth curved into what looked to be a grin. It studied the mangaka with small beady eyes.

"Oh shut up, what do you know," Rohan replied. He then turned back to his trap, grinning like an antsy schoolboy. Then the grin quickly faded once his mind properly registered what he had been talking to. He nearly jumped into the bush.

"What! It's you!" Rohan shouted.

"If by「you」, you mean the「Kyubey-san」you are looking for, then yes...it is me," The creature answered.

With incredibly fast reflexes honed from years of meeting deadlines, Rohan jabbed a finger through the air.

"Heaven's Door!"

"Heaven's Door? Isn't that the Bob Dylan-" Kyubey was stopped short as Heaven's Door made contact with the creature, causing his round, cute face to burst open like the cover of a book, causing the pages past it to spill outward. It went limp and fell against ground.

"Haha! Got you ya bastard!" Rohan shouted.

He quickly went to the fallen magical girl mascot, picking him up like a doll and proceeded to flip through the pages. His elation faded once he read what was written on them.

 **Silly Human. I let you use that ability on me.**

"What!?" Rohan yelled.

The pages suddenly snapped back and the incubator blinked his tiny eyes open again. "A very interesting ability. You would have made a fine magical girl. A shame you aren't a prepubescent female."

"Impossible! My Heaven's Door didn't work!"

"Of course it didn't work. This body you are holding is only one part of a greater whole. Your Heaven's Door is a powerful ability, but it wouldn't work on a being like me."

 _Damn it!_ Rohan thought. Perhaps he could bribe it with sweets instead.

"Anyways...I let myself be shown to you for a specific reason Rohan Kishibe," Kyubey said, his expression eerily unchanging.

"Huh?" Rohan said. "What are you talking about?"

He let the incubator go, who plopped to the ground on all four stubby feet like a real cat would. The strange creature paced around for a second, before sitting and brushing its face with its own tail.

"How much did Mami Tomoe tell you about me, and about magical girls Rohan?" Kyubey said.

"That they become one after making a wish...and they have to fight creatures called witches." Rohan promptly answered. "That was all really, before she began demanding to know how I'll pay for her apartment damages." He tactfully left out the truth. Mami was more keen on knowing about stand users, and he and Koichi both told her their bizarre world after they had heard about hers. He purposefully didn't want Kyubey to know that, in the event he can exchange the information for the incubator's more refined knowledge of the magical girl system.

"It seems she told you the basics," Kyubey said. "What if I told you that my job...is like that of a shepherd?"

"A shepherd?" Rohan raised an eyebrow. Not exactly the metaphor he'd use for a magical girl mascot.

"Yes. Me and my kind are like shepherds. And the girls I make contracts with are my flock of sheep," Kyubey said. Rohan was beginning to feel this Kyubey guy wasn't as good hearted as Mami made him out to be, if he was willing to go so far as to compare her to livestock.

Come to think of it, where was Kyubey when one of his own contractees was attacked in her own apartment? As a mangaka who regularly wrote shifty characters, and having to deal with shifty characters in real life like that braindead idiot Josuke Higashikata, Rohan was getting a very _very_ shifty vibe from Kyubey the more he talked to him.

"Being a shepherd isn't an easy job you know," Kyubey licked his paw before continuing. "You have to make sure the animals are properly taken care of. You have to make sure they are well fed and in healthy conditions, make sure they are ready for when their coats are finally to be harvested. And most importantly of all...you have to make sure no「wolves」 come by to snatch one."

"Alright alright alright," Rohan snided. "Enough with the animal husbandry metaphors, I get it. Get to the point."

"Fair enough Rohan Kishibe," Kyubey said. He glanced up at Rohan. "I'm here to warn you, and I hope you will warn the other magical girls...that there's a「wolf」 in Mitakihara...taking my「sheep」. A wolf...as you humans say...in sheep's clothing."

* * *

 **MITAKIHARA MIDDLE SCHOOL**

There was a crowd of students gathered around Homura and her desk as the transfer student wooed her classmates with a trick.

She chewed something in her mouth, then opened it to reveal a pair of cherry stems on her tongue, without the actual cherry part, though the seeds were there.

"See? I ate it with the seeds still attached to the stem," Homura said, miraculously with the seeds still on her tongue. She then spat them out into a napkin. Gasps rippled through the crowd as the transfer student formed a cocky grin on her face.

"Wow! I could never do that!" One of the students said.

Madoka and Sayaka, meanwhile remained at their desks, unsure of what to make of the transfer student, who wasn't her usual aloof self.

"Hey...what's gotten into her?" Sayaka whispered.

"Maybe she was just nervous on her first day of school, and is getting more confidence as she is getting used to our class," Madoka replied.

"I don't know…" Sayaka said. She didn't share her friend's trust of people, and there was something definitely off about Homura Akemi.

And, speak of the devil, the girl came sauntering over to where they sat, moving with an assured grace. Her hair blew back like waves.

She looked at Madoka, and Sayaka could've sworn there was an almost seductive angle to how the transfer student looked at her friend. It made the feeling of distrust brewing inside her deepen.

"Hello Kaname-san…" Homura said.

"Oh...hello Homura!" Madoka answered. She looked nervous. "Um...that cherry trick was really neato…"

Homura then let out a deep sigh, cutting Madoka off. She placed her hand on her forehead and almost looked like she was going to faint. " _Whew._ I don't feel too well. I think I'm coming down with something. Do you mind taking me to the nurse's office...Kaname-san?"

"Urm...sure. Of course!" Madoka said with a slight hesitation.

Sayaka couldn't read minds, at least not like magical girls or Kyubey-san could. So she couldn't tell if Madoka was suspicious of what was going on, but she hoped she did.

Now, Sayaka would be the first to admit she didn't trust the transfer student, who had tried to attack Kyubey-san at the mall when she and Madoka first entered the world of witches and the magical girls that fight them. But today, the transfer student was appearing more antagonistic as usual, but it didn't seem like anyone else but Sayaka noticed.

"Hey Sayaka...I'll be right back," Madoka said as she got up from her seat. "I'm going to take Homura to see the nurse."

It was then that Sayaka saw it. A glint in the transfer student's eye. A glint which, along with that devilish smile on her face, suggested the transfer student was plotting something.

Was it an overreaction? No, it couldn't be. Sayaka knew in her heart that something was going on, and the transfer student was at the center of it for certain. And she was about to drag Madoka into it as well. She couldn't let that happen to her friend.

"Hang on Madoka! I'll come with you!" Sayaka said. She sat up from her desk.

Homura looked displeased, her brows furrowed at Sayaka, who furrowed hers back. The two locked stares, with Madoka oblivious to the invisible current of hostility that shot between them.

"Eh? Why Sayaka?" Madoka said. "Are you not feeling well either?"

"Yeah! I...uh…" Sayaka scratched the back of her head. She needed an excuse. Her mind then went to the rock canister that Madoka is making her keep at her house. There certainly wasn't anywhere else to put it. "I think I might've caught something from being scratched by the rock in that canister! I'm beginning to feel a bit under the weather too!"

"Oh goodness! Then we better both go," Madoka said. She turned to Homura. "You wouldn't mind if Sayaka tagged along, do you?"

Homura looked at Madoka, then at Sayaka. Her dark eyes seemed to almost darker as she stood there, staring at the two girls. Then she smiled.

"No...of course not. Why would I mind? The more the merrier." She then sauntered off towards the exit, before stopping and doing a head tilt back. "What are we all waiting for?"

Madoka smiled, then walked off. Sayaka followed behind them last. There was only one thought that crossed her mind.

 _Just what on Earth are you thinking, Homura Akemi?_

* * *

The walk to the nurse's office was more tension filled than any walk to the nurse's office had a right to be. There was lively student chatter in the hallways, but Sayaka drowned all of that out. She could only concentrate on Homura, who was walking with a calm pace besides her as they followed Madoka.

She couldn't take her eyes off the transfer student, nor shake the feeling in her gut that something bad was about to go down. A silly thought the more she thought about it, but it clung to her like a tiny insect that kept buzzing around her mind which refused to fly away.

 _Damn it. Something is not adding up. There's definitely something off about the transfer student._

Sayaka bit her lower lip. She wanted to just take Madoka and leave, away from the transfer student. Her thoughts gelled to that of protection..and inexplicably caused her to will a second arm to sprout out of her own.

Sayaka had to stifle a gasp. She looked down and a fine sword come out of her palm, followed by a ghostly arm that clutched the handle of the sword, covered in an elaborate gauntlet with an oyster shell design on top of it. A gauntlet that would be befitting of a medieval knight.

The sword itself was the stuff of fantasy videogames. It appeared as a scimitar with long, fine blade curved near the top. The blade was made of a smooth metal that was so clean and polished it practically reflected the surroundings like a mirror.

The arm vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, along with the sword it was carrying. Sayaka nervously glanced around and was surprised to see that the students barely batted an eye at her. No one else saw the hand but her, not even Madoka, who had her back turned, or Homura who was too busy staring at Madoka's back.

Sayaka let out the quietest sigh of relief she could utter.

 _What the hell was that did I just see? Was it a trick? Am I seeing things? No...that arm was certainly real! And it looked like...it almost looked like Madoka's punch ghost._

Sayaka gulped.

 _It looked like...some sort of stab ghost!_

She looked up and her heart nearly stopped when she noticed Homura glaring at her.

"Is something the matter?"

"Ah...no! Nothing at all."

Madoka had turned around. "Huh? What's up you guys?"

Homura's eyes lingered on Sayaka like a snake eyeing a mouse. She then turned to Madoka then said in an almost mocking tone of pantomime: "No...nothing at." She smiled again. Her smiles were beginning to get on Sayaka's nerves.

When they finally reached the nurse's office, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of Sayaka's chest. At least an adult was there in case Homura tried anything funny.

The nurse was a fairly plump woman stationed at the front desk. She greeted Madoka warmly. "Oh! Hello Kaname-san."

"Hello! I have two friends here who would like to get checked out. They aren't feeling well."

"Oh dear! Then let's get them checked out right away!" The nurse glanced at Homura, then at Sayaka. "Unfortunately, I can only look at one of you girls at a time."

"I think Akemi-san should go first!" Sayaka abruptly spoke up.

"Eh?" Madoka and the nurse said in unison. Homura didn't say anything. She only glared per usual.

"It's fair isn't it? She brought up her problem to you first Madoka, so it makes sense for her to go first." Sayaka said.

The transfer student's intense gaze suddenly lightened. She beamed at Sayaka, which was more scary than when she was glaring. "That's so considerate of you Miki-san."

"Very well then, come with me." The nurse said, beckoning Homura to follow. They disappeared into a room adjacent to the front desk, leaving Madoka and Sayaka alone in the office's lobby.

Sayaka quickly grabbed Madoka's arm.

"Eh? Sayaka? What's the matter?" Madoka said.

Sayaka brought her voice to a low, inconspicuous whisper. "Madoka...don't you think the transfer student is acting...weird."

"Weird?" Madoka said. "Well...she did say some strange things to me when we first met...and she is a magical girl…and then there was my dream..."

"I'm not talking about any of that! I'm saying she's more off than usual...which is _really_ saying something!"

"Oh come now Sayaka...you're overreacting. And it's not nice to talk about other people like that behind their backs."

Was she really overreacting? Sayaka pondered that.

But then she _knew_ she wasn't overreacting when she saw a black barrel inch its way between the blue curtains that separated the check up room with the lobby.

Sayaka was no weapons expert, but even she recognized the muzzle of a silencer when she saw one. And it was pointed directly at Madoka's oblivious head.

"Madoka! Watch out!" Sayaka shouted.

"Huh?" Madoka said.

The muzzle made a shrieking sound and a stream of light burst forth from its mouth. A bullet whizzed out of it as Sayaka jumped in front of her friend.

In hindsight, Sayaka realized how idiotic her plan was. She wasn't bulletproof.

 _Oh crap!_

A massive, armored figure erupted out of her being, coming into existence in front of her like a shield. It swung its arm, and the sword in its hand sliced the bullet clean in two, causing their halves to tumble lightly across the tiled floor. All of which happened in a speed so fast that when Sayaka blinked, she wasn't sure if any of that happened at all. Her only proof was in the bullet halves laying on the ground, and the fact that she was still standing, alive.

"What...what the-"Sayaka was breathing fast, her mind reeling and trying to make sense of what had just happened in a span of less than a second.

Madoka gasped. "Sayaka...you have...you have the same「ability」as me!"

The being that saved Sayaka's life was still there. A literal knight in shining armor, though the strangest knight Sayaka had ever seen, for it had a few traits that belonged to fish. It was clad in a aquamarine armor from head to toe, with a blanket of shimmering, interlocking scales covering its legs like that of a koi, its feet ending in webbed flippers. Its helmet had a unique design, with three swirls or doughnuts engraved to where its visor should have been, its mouth piece a simple grate. A tuft of hair erupted out of the top of the helmet, sprouting dagger-shaped antennae covered in three lines of musical notes that connected them all together. Its collar was large and in the shape of a heart with repeating, multicolor diamond patterns, with a big red bowtie hanging down from the front of the collar. Its gauntlets were familiar, as did the big, reflective scimitar it carried. A series of alternating musical notes went from its thick shoulder pads and going down the length of its armored arms before terminating at the oyster symbol on the back of its gauntlets.

Sayaka was seeing the owner of the arm that had sprouted out of her earlier. And it was indeed like Madoka's Endless Dream.

"H-Holy crap!" Sayaka exclaimed. The tension of having been shot at earlier diffused when she realized that she too had been given a special power like Madoka. A power that wasn't a magical girl's, but that of something she thought was way cooler.

Then she turned her attention to the door and of their attacker who was potentially lingering behind the curtain.

In perfect synchronicity with her thoughts, Sayaka's stab ghost hovered towards the door, its legs cleared of the ground and thus making no noise as it moved. The middle schooler was taken aback with how easy it was to control it. It felt like moving an extra body part.

She had to give it a name.

 _It cut that bullet in two...so I'll call it Cutting Crew! Yeah! That's cool! That's totally badass! Almost as badass as Madoka's Endless Drea-"_

Sayaka snapped out of her daydream when she noticed Madoka had called out her own punch ghost. Endless Dream, with its half-a-face and its long dress of wires braced itself against the other side of the door.

"Someone...someone shot at us…" Madoka said. "And I bet the attacker is still behind the curtain!"

"Yeah I'll bet!" Sayaka said. Her fists clenched, she felt like a genuine superhero of justice. If she wasn't so terrified, she'd say she was downright excited. With Madoka by her side, she felt like the police inspector who teamed up with Charles Bronson in the finale of Death Wish 3. Or perhaps she was Charles Bronson and Madoka was the less cool but still badass police inspector.

"Alright Madoka...let's kick the ass of whoever tried to attack us!" Sayaka said. She was about to send Cutting Crew through the door like a hero, ready to defeat whoever was on the other side.

"Wait Sayaka...we shou-"

Sayaka didn't listen to Madoka. She didn't wait.

"Alright Cutting Crew! Attack!" Sayaka yelled, and her stab ghost swung its sword through the curtains.

* * *

Homura had her pistol still pointed at the door, but she couldn't pull the trigger. Her fingers twitched, her body becoming nonresponsive to the commands being forced through Dr. Feelgood's parasitic flesh bud that was pulsating in her forehead, conveniently hidden by folds of her hair.

A voice was shouting from deep within her. It was her own consciousness yelling at her.

 _Stop...stop this...stop this! STOP THIS!_

The flesh bud shook violently, causing Homura painful migraines as it tried to stave off the influence of the magical girl's lingering psyche. Instead, Homura's real self only fought back harder.

She let out a snarl as she clutched her head with her free hand. It felt as if her brain was waging a civil war with itself, threatening to tear her consciousness apart between two extremes. Eventually however, Dr. Feelgood's flesh bud came out on top yet again.

"Damn it," Homura said. She shook her head. Her moment of distraction gone, she turned her attention to the door once more, to continue her mission of eliminating Madoka Kaname before she could turn into a rival for her vampiric master.

A sword sliced through the curtain.

"What!" Homura shouted. The blade caught Homura by surprise. It was long enough to graze the back side of her gun toting hand as it moved downward in an arc. The pain caused her to yell and drop her pistol. She stepped back, subconsciously activating her time stop ability right as she tripped over the unconscious body of the nurse she had knocked out with a well placed karate chop to the neck.

She tumbled over the nurse and quickly sprang to her feet using her inhuman agility and reflexes. She pulled out another gun from the shield clamped to her arm, this time a machine gun, and pointed it at the door.

The world had become still, the chopped curtains still intact, unable to fall to the floor and thus obscuring what the sword belonged to. Everything took on a greyish, lifeless coloration. Only Homura could move.

"Damn it! What was that! That sword...it couldn't be! Sayaka couldn't have turned into a magical girl in this timeline yet! And that sword looked way too big to be her standard magical girl ones!"

Homura then brought her attention to the wound inflicted on her hand. The diagonal scratch made by the blade was long, easily the width of her hand. But it was light, barely deep enough to draw any actual blood.

"Hmph. I should be more careful," Homura snarled as the flesh bud exerted its influence over her even more. "It'd be embarrassing if I failed my mission because of Sayaka Miki of all things!"

She then grinned and stepped closer to the door, machine gun raised. She wasn't afraid of the sword , for neither Sayaka or Madoka could move in stopped time, not even the latter's Endless Dream, who she only recently heard about. They were both helpless like sitting ducks.

"Goodbye, Madoka Kaname!" Homura yelled.

A tingling on her hand prevented her from pulling the trigger.

"Huh? What the-" Homura glanced at the back of her hand again.

The wound was gone.

"What? I could've sworn I had been cut there earlier…"

The tingling sensation came again, but this time on her forearm.

Shocked, Homura quickly rolled up her sleeve.

The wound was there, but now it was on the back of her arm, close to her elbow.

"What...what is this?"

Then Homura's eyes went wide. The wound moved.

The dark red cut slithered across the surface of her flesh like a snake, worming its way further up Homura's arm as if possessed by a will of its own.

It was then that Homura had a grim reminder of a weakness to her time stop ability. Anything touching her during stopped time was free to move as well. The unnatural scratch made by the sword was no different since it was made on her flesh.

It sped up Homura's arm and towards her throat.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Author's notes:** A quick and dirty update before work picks up. I don't expect to be really swamped until March, but anything could happen.


	11. Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 3

**Yes, I'm still alive. But barely after work. Things got extraordinarily busy for two months, to the point where I had to work weekends, so you can understand that I didn't have time to write.**

 **Thanks for your patience and understanding.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11 - Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 3**

Homura thought she was done for. The scratch had already arrived on her neck, right on the sweet spot where her carotid artery was. She could feel it grow, to deepen. That was when she began to panic.

 _Damn! If I don't do anything soon, it'll cut my carotid artery! I'll bleed to death!_

But she couldn't do anything. Her powers were more geared towards assassinations than healing, which, in another timeline, would have been Sayaka's forte. Even so, she had doubts healing magic could mend a wound that can move and grow as if by its own will. A wound wasn't an object one can simply remove either like a bandage slapped onto skin, and the strange wound on her was stuck to her like a stubborn piece of gum beneath the underside of a shoe.

She had to do something, she just didn't know what…

Until her eyes fell upon the nurse she knocked out. Her brain hatched a plan that most likely wouldn't work, but she'd be damned if she was going down without exhausting all the options.

"Tch-" Homura ran towards the nurse and suddenly braced her neck upon her back, in an awkward pose that no one would have seen her doing if she could help it.

The idea was that the wound actively searched out organic targets...automatically. The only way for someone to be controlling it was to be fully aware of where Homura was in a room with no vantage points, during frozen time when they couldn't have been possibly aware. Which was in no way logically possible. Thus, it had to be automatic.

Which meant Homura's gambit wasn't so crazy after all. If it was truly automatic, then there was no distinctions between two living bodies, regardless if one happened to be sleeping…

Something like a weight lifted from the magical girl's neck. She quickly stood back up, her hand brushing against her neck. The wound wasn't there anymore. Her eyes fell to the nurse, who now had a cut in the back of her scrubs, along with a red slit. The wound had been transferred.

Homura broke out in a relieved series of chuckles.

"Ha! To think I was worried about such a silly abi-"

The wound suddenly began to slither, ripping through the back of the nurse's clothes, going so far as cutting the back of her brasserie. But it didn't leave any lasting mark on the nurse, only temporary trails of red on the flesh where it moved through, quickly mending itself. It was traveling across the nurse's body but wasn't growing or deepening like it had when it arrived on Homura's neck.

"What!?" Homura yelled. She stumbled back as the wound went down the nurse's arm and made a quick turn towards the floor. The magical girl thought the cut could have only moved across living skin but was promptly proven wrong as it slithered onto the hard floor and began to travel across it.

"Impossible! The wound became a「cut」 on the floor! And it's _moving towards me_!"

The cut headed towards the tips of Homura's toes, and there was an obvious answer to where it would go after that. Her neck still tingled.

However, the situation has changed. The cut was no longer on Homura but on the floor, which meant the magical girl could stop it in its tracks.

Her shield clicked.

The flow of time halted.

The cut ceased moving along with the rest of the world. Anything that isn't touching Homura couldn't move in stopped time after all. And with the attack immobilized, with her out of any immediate danger, she pulled out a 9mm sig.

She aimed at the cut on the floor and fired off a shot. The bullet caused a hole on the floor overlapped to the cut, marring its shape. She then took a deep breath and allowed time to flow again.

The cut didn't move. She let out a sigh of relief.

Her initial reaction of shooting the cut was just that, a mere spontaneous reaction. A cut wasn't a target one could shoot and damage, but Homura had discovered a weakness to the ability just by doing that. If the wound or cut was marred by another, losing its original shape in any way or form, then it ceased moving. It became just a regular cut.

"Damn...the ability is certainly deadly," Homura pursed her lips. "But it has such an exploitable weakness!"

The flesh bud on her forehead pulsed, sending her a mental order.

"Right," Homura grimaced. Her eyes narrowed. She studied her gun. Her voice became indifferent and cold, an evil gleam briefly sparkling on her dark eyes. The conscious of the true Homura, buried under the drowning influence of the vampiric parasite, could not be heard in her thoughts anymore. "I have a mission to complete."

She was about to turn around, when a heavy weight fell upon her head with enough force to knock her out instantly.

* * *

"Holy crap, I knocked out the transfer student!" Sayaka exclaimed, holding the canister taken from Elly's house in trembling hands. It was the only object around that was just big and heavy enough to be used as a not-quite-fatal blunt weapon, and she didn't want to use her stand for outright fear of overdoing it and killing Homura instead of merely knocking her out, her reasoning being she didn't have enough practice to control her Cutting Crew and make it pull its punches.

Her emotions were split between extremes. Part of her was shocked, terrified as any middle school student should be when knocking out an armed assailant at a school. But the other part of her felt giddy excitement, the part that was brought up on anime and manga. She felt like a hero of justice, knocking out the vile villain without even the need of her powers.

Her only surprise was that the assailant, the one that had been firing at her and Madoka, was the transfer student.

Well, perhaps not really surprised. Sayaka knew the mysterious girl carried around guns in her magical girl guise, which she was in now, and she knew that she was as trustworthy as a witch or familiar.

"Sayaka...what is-"

Madoka ran through the curtain. She gasped as her eyes fell upon Homura, who had fallen face down like the nurse, and placed her hands around her gaping mouth.

"What...what happened?" Madoka said.

"Er…" Sayaka awkwardly looked at her friend. "I can explain."

"You can?"

"Yeah…" Sayaka brushed the back of her head. Cutting Crew vanished into streaks of light, back into its user's body. "I might've knocked out Akemi-san."

"You what!?"

"Hey! She was the one attacking us!" Sayaka said. She was about to offer a quick quip about how it was lucky she was there to save the day, when she noticed something off about the canister. It felt lighter than it was before.

Sayaka glanced down at the canister. Madoka rattled on, something about showing concern for the transfer student attacking them, going so far as to run towards her attacker and making sure she was alright, but Sayaka didn't hear any of it. She was distracted. She didn't know why, but she could feel a thumping in her chest, hear a distant, ominous rumbling in the air.

 **ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ**

She looked at the bottom of the canister. There was a hole on the bottom, the same hole where the strange rock was allowed to poke through to scratch whoever was near it, herself included. Only the hole was bigger than before. And she couldn't see the rock inside it.

"Sayaka! She's bleeding!" Madoka's voice snapped Sayaka's attention away from the canister.

The transfer student was indeed bleeding, specifically from the part of her neck exposed when her hair was parted away by Madoka. Bleeding...from a piece of rock lodged there.

 _What? Since when did-_

A shadow fell upon the wall. A shadow that wasn't there before. A crouched silhouette appeared behind Madoka and Homura, kneeling beside a cabinet which was near the unconscious nurse.

As the form of the newcomer became clearer, Sayaka could not help but feel her eyes widen, feel her skin go pale with goosebumps.

It was a thing carved straight out of a child's nightmares, or perhaps maybe even her own. A horrific gaunt figure with a skeletal face, its grinning jawbones filled with rows of pale, gnashing teeth being the only thing visible as the rest of its head was obscured by lengthy, waist-like hair the shade of pure midnight. A crown of red spider lilies sat upon its head. Square metal shackles bound its wrists, but did not tie them together, allowing it to place its bony hands feeling on its knees, which was covered by its oversized, umbrella-shaped skirt.

But despite the ghastly, absurd, and most inhuman appearance of the creature, Sayaka could not shake a sense of familiarity about it.

The black hair, the way its clothes, especially the collar of its blouse...all reminded her of Homura Akemi, especially in her magical girl form.

There was no barrier, no familiars.

There was only one conclusion.

"Madoka! Watch out! _Enemy stand_!" Sayaka shouted at the top of her lungs.

Madoka was made quickly aware and turned around.

That was when the stand made its move.

It stood up, its fingers clicking as it moved. It reached out and brought down its shackled arm in an arcing swing towards Madoka, with Sayaka staring on in frozen terror.

* * *

Endless Dream appeared and brought up its arms in defense in front of its user, blocking the skeletal stand's attack, pressing down. The raw of strengths of the two stands were pitted against each other...and Madoka was losing.

Something was wrong. Madoka couldn't put her finger on what exactly was wrong, but she could feel it, and it made her shiver, turning her pale.

 _What...what is going on? My stand should be stronger than this!_

The strange, monstrous stand that Sayaka warned her about, that had appeared suddenly like a newly ignited candle without the user in sight, was continuously pressing down its arm upon her Endless Dream's, it's strength overwhelming that of Madoka's stand.

But it couldn't have been stronger. Its arms were only bones, no muscles of any kind to emit any sort of force.

That was when Madoka realized a weird sensation in her arms, which gave a horrifying clue to the stand's ability.

She felt numb. Not a paralyzing numb, but a slight, subtle numbness, as if she had been fatigued, as if her muscles had lost all strength…

...Lost all strength.

 _Could it be…?_

"Madoka!" Sayaka shouted, snapping Madoka out of her gaze. Endless Dream answered its user's thoughts, and delivered a powerful kick through its wire-skirt, slamming into the enemy stand's waist and kicking it back before rolling out of range before the stand could recover and attack again, moving away from the unconscious Homura.

Only she wasn't unconscious anymore. The transfer student slowly rose from the floor, rising like a vengeful spirit.

"H-Homura?" Madoka whispered.

The girl's face was cloaked by the shadows cast by her overflowing raven hair, with only a scowl visible on her face that could have meant anything to displeasure to outright bloodlust-inducing rage.

The stand floated forward, crawling steadily towards Homura. Madoka was about to warn the transfer student, when the stand suddenly stopped, just inches behind her. It then gracefully landed a bony hand on the transfer student, the latter not flinching at all. Rather, her scowl became a devilish grin and she caressed the stand's fingers gently in an almost seductive fashion.

 _Oh crap…_

"You gotta be kidding me!" Sayaka shouted from behind.

Madoka had overlooked the obvious and she felt like an idiot for it.

The stand's user had been in the room all along. She should've known from the designs on the stand's dress, and its hairstyle which it shared with its user.

"I think I'll call it「Twisted Sister」..." Homura said. She brushed the hair away from her face, revealing her black eyes glinting with mischief. Madoka could have sworn she saw something move near the tip of her hairline.

The transfer student reached out and pulled out the rock fragment in her neck without so much as wincing. She studied it for a moment with curiosity, before making it vanish into her shield.

"We don't care what you call it!" Sayaka said. Her Cutting Crew appeared, brandishing its sword. "Why are you attacking us?"

Homura ignored Sayaka, even with her stand out. Her focus was on Madoka and Madoka alone, her eyes never leaving her as she stood up with Endless Dream. Twisted Sister made popping sounds with its skeletal hands.

"You're not Homura...are you?" Madoka said with an intense glare.

"And you aren't the meek middle school student I thought I could easily「eliminate」for my「master」without any hassle on my part. I see now that I have been gravely mistaken..."

 _Master?_ Madoka blinked. _Did she just say master?_

Homura turned to her stand, staring into its grisly face. It was unclear if its jawbone was always grinning or naturally fixed like that.

"Now I understand everything...how「she」was able to defeat me so easily in our...initial encounters." She turned to Madoka. "This new power...this「stand ability」...is something that even the likes of Kyubey can't grant! The power of「weaponized witches」!"

Madoka's initial hunch was right. It wasn't Homura Akemi she was talking to, who was usually aloof and not prone to cheesy comic book villain quotes.

Cutting Crew suddenly rushed past Madoka. It flew towards Twisted Sister, which appeared in front of its user to guard her, its sword held in a fencer's stance.

"Enough blabbering!" Sayaka shouted.

"Sayaka wait! We don't know its abilities yet!"

Madoka's warning fell on deaf ears. Cutting Crew continued forward, only for its strike to be casually deflected as Twisted Sister slapped its wrist away with the back of its knuckles.

But Sayaka was undeterred in her stubbornness. Cutting Crew stepped back and was about to raise its sword...when it fell from her grasp.

"Agh!" Sayaka said. Her own arms drooped. She was holding her wrist.

"Sayaka? What's wrong!"

Homura only stood watching, her grin widening. Twisted Sister didn't even bother to move as Sayaka's stand attempted to pick up its cutlass once more, only for it once more to fall out of its hands.

"The sword...its heavy!" Sayaka said. "Its too heavy for my stand to pick up!"

Madoka glanced wide-eyed at Sayaka, then at Twisted Sister, standing behind its user who had her arms crossed, her fingers tapping her chin in amusement. It was obvious from the look on the transfer student's smug face that she was merely toying with them, like a cat to its prey.

 _Did the stand make the sword heavy? No...that couldn't be. The stand touched Cutting Crew, not the sword itself!_

"Interesting...I'm beginning to understand my new ability just a little bit more," Homura said. "But enough games. The longer I make this last, the more displeased my master will be with me."

Twisted Sister rushed towards the now defenseless Cutting Crew, its arms poised. Then, to Madoka's horror, it let out a barrage of fists, with its own unique battle shriek.

"Sayaka watch out!"

"Wha-"

" _ **HOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMU~!"**_

Twisted Sister was faster than Cutting Crew. Thankfully however, Endless Dream was a notch faster than either. It blocked Twisted Sister's fists with its own, with spheres of bright light, uncertainty fields, generating out of each hand, devouring the enemy's knuckles.

Homura shivered, her body, specifically her hands, frozen in place. "What on Earth-?"

"My Endless Dream can make all possibilities real at the same time!" The irises of Madoka's eyes became wreathed in black flames, with an intensity that mirrored that of her emotions. "But only makes one the「true reality」!"

Many versions of Twisted Sister appeared at once, like flickering images coming from a film projector, only much more vivid. One of them happened to in a falling back position, its face twisted as if struck across the face. A reality where, instead of deciding to defend Sayaka from the attack, Madoka had decided to save her by having Endless Dream should land a strike first. A possibility that had originally been a decision that Madoka decided to wave, but soon became reality once the field collapsed all around them, and the version of Twisted Sister that came to exist had its face buried within Endless Dream's fist.

Homura spat out blood as she lurched back from a blow that she didn't even know she had received.

"Gaaah!" She quickly covered a hand to her face, her expression twisted by malice and anger.

Twisted Sister snarled, then went on the offensive once again. It lashed out with its bony claws.

Endless Dream responded by launching a fist...only for it to be caught by Twisted Sister's waiting hand.

Homura had faster reflexes than she had thought.

Suddenly, pain erupted all across Madoka's arm. She yelled and watched in horror as her school uniform sleeve became bloodied. She looked to her stand for answers, and saw that Endless Dream was bleeding across its arms, nearly broken in places. Her stand was clenching its teeth like she was. Twisted Sister somehow broke its arm by simply catching its fist.

"This...this is!" Madoka said.

Homura let out a devious chuckle. "You still haven't figured it out? You broke your own arm."

 _What! How could I have possibly broke my own arm?_ Madoka's lips went dry. The initial pain that rocked her arm passed over, leaving her with a numbing throbbing. She clutched it, her heart thumping.

"I'll spell it out for you," Homura mocked. "The force of your own punch broke your arm...which had been「weakened」by my Twisted Sister's ability."

"Weakened? What does hell that mean!?" Sayaka yelled.

"It's exactly what it sounds like you idiot. My stand can「weaken」things! I wasn't sure at first, but now I am certain!" Homura pointed at Sayaka. "I made your stand too weak to pick up its own blade…" then she pointed back at Madoka. "...and your own stand's arms too weak to strike me without causing severe injuries to itself!"

 _The power...to weaken anything?_ Madoka had a clue the ability had something to do with sapping away strength, given the strange feeling that had infected her arms earlier. She knew it felt as if her arms were fatigued.

But knowing the actual nature of her opponent's ability did not comfort her in the slightest. Quite the opposite in fact. Especially when the opponent was a person that shared a homeroom class with, and she thought to be just an ordinary albeit aloof girl who went to the same school as her.

"But I wonder…" Homura licked her lips. "If my ability can work even on inanimate things?"

With that, Twisted Sister launched into the air and struck the ceiling with its palm.

At first nothing happened…

"Ha! Guess your power doesn't work on-"

Sayaka's gloating was short-lived, as a pieces of small plaster dislodged itself from the ceiling and landed right on Sayaka...including her wrist.

Under ordinary circumstances, a piece of plaster that size, no bigger than a pebble, drifting downwards like a gentle snowflake, wouldn't have harmed Sayaka at all. But it just so happened to land on the wrist of the arm that corresponded to the one Cutting Crew tried to pick up a sword with. The one that had been weakened by Twisted Sister.

It pierced her flesh, which had lost all of its sturdiness. She yelled and fell to the floor, as the weight of the debris became too heavy to move.

"Ack!" Sayaka said.

"Sayaka!" Madoka yelled.

Another piece of debris no bigger than the one Sayaka was hit with bounced off of Madoka's head, prompting her to look up.

A twisting network of cracks appeared all across the ceiling, with Twisted Sister's palm at the center of them all. Debris drifted between them.

The material strength of whatever composed the ceiling was weakening, losing its capability to withstand the load it had to bear.

It collapsed.

But what made Madoka yell out in utter terror was not the fact an entire ceiling was coming down upon them. It was the fact that she heard screams other than her own or Sayaka's, and she saw that, in between the chunks of debris, other people, in school uniforms, was falling towards them through the individual pieces of debris.

There had been another classroom up there.

And above all the chaos, came Homura's laughter, which was more like the cackling of a mad banshee.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Stand Name:** Cutting Crew

 **User:** Sayaka Miki

 **Namesake:** Cutting Crew (English Rock Band)

 **Formerly:** Oktavia Von Seckendorff

 **Stats:**

Destructive Power - C

Speed - B

Range - C

Durability - B

Precision - A

Development Potential - A

 **Abilities:**

Moving Cuts:

Cutting Crew has the ability to allow the user to control any wound or cut inflicted by its blade. The cuts can be made to move across any surface they are inflicted on, and can deepen or lengthen by 1cm at will. The user can only control the cuts if she sees them. If she doesn't see them, they will either become regular cuts that can't be controlled anymore, or will automatically seek out a target's weak spot, depending on how long it has been since the cut has been inflicted (usually, a cut cannot be moved after 10 seconds).

* * *

 **Stand Name:** Twisted Sister

 **User:** Homura Akemi

 **Namesake:** Twisted Sister (American Heavy Metal Band)

 **Formerly:** Homulilly

 **Stats:**

Destructive Power - A

Speed - B

Range - C

Durability - C

Precision - B

Development Potential - B

 **Abilities:**

Weakening

Twister Sister's sole ability is to weaken anything it touches with its bone-like hands. It can weaken the material strength of materials resulting in objects becoming brittle, or the physical strength of biological organisms, making them too weak to lift things that they usually could easily lift, or making them more prone to injuries that they wouldn't have sustained otherwise.

The full extent of its abilities has not been revealed yet.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** I meant for this chapter to be out sooner, but as mentioned by the blurb at the beginning of the chapter, I just couldn't. Work just ate up most of my time, and I didn't have the mental strength left to write a word. Thanks again to my readers for having the patience to deal with my erratic update schedule.

Just a heads up though, the same thing will happen during the month of April, where it is expected I will be very busy again (i.e not leaving work until midnight everyday busy), so I won't be able to update for a while after that. Hopefully I will get things rolling again in May or during Summer, when things won't be as busy.


	12. Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 4

**Note: I will be going on a hiatus for the month of April, as it's been made pretty clear to me that work obligations won't allow me to do anything else for the next four to five months. It sucks, but there's no way around it. Thanks for your patience and understanding.**

 **Chapter 12 - Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 4**

The remnants of the ceiling rained down upon Madoka and Sayaka, along with a dozen hapless, panicking students.

"Endless Dream!"

Madoka's stand rushed upwards and sent out a barrage of punches towards the falling debris. An uncertainty field erupted forth from the stand's fist, encompassing the debris and the students closest to them and forcing them into one position close to the center, allowing the floor to piece back together. The students reappeared on the other end, the pieced together debris from another reality acting as a platform for them to safely fly back up.

But she couldn't get all of them. Her range wouldn't allow it.

The farther part of the ceiling collapsed, causing more students to fall. Horror was etched on Madoka's face.

 _Damn! My field can't reach that far! I can't-_

"Cutting Crew!"

Upon Sayaka's shout, Cutting Crew slammed its sword into a wall, causing a cut with the sword stuck inside it. Using it as a moving track, Sayaka's stand lifted itself up by moving the cut along the wall, allowing the stand to move swiftly in a diagonal line, scooping up the remaining falling students along the way with its free arm and throwing them back up to the safety of the parts of the upper floor that had not collapsed yet.

With the students out of danger, Cutting Crew disappeared and Sayaka took a breather while Madoka watched in awe.

"Sayaka...how did you know how to do that?"

"Huh?" Sayaka glanced at Madoka, then glared at the cut that Cutting Crew used as a track, which had went from tiny to room length.

"I...I honestly don't know! I didn't know Cutting Crew could do that! It was as if...as if the「cut」created by its sword was malleable...as if I could decide how long it gets and where it should go!"

"That's incredible!"

Sayaka became smug. "Yeah...I know right?"

Madoka did not have time to share in her friend's laxness. The eyes of her fellow classmates, some belonging to the people she and Sayaka had just rescued, weighed down on her from the crater above, confused and frightened. But there was a more pressing matter at hand than trying to explain to a group of terrified middle school students of what had just happened. There was a killer transfer student in the room with them.

Or so she thought, until she turned to where Homura once was and realized she wasn't there. The girl had vanished, slipping away unnoticed amidst the chaos.

 _She escaped! Drats! And with a stand like hers, this could be dangerous…_

It took Sayaka a second to notice too that their classmate turned opponent was gone.

"Hey! Where did she go!?"

"I don't know," Madoka answered, her tone turning grim. "But we better find her soon…" She hesitated, almost not wanting to say the next words. "...before she hurts anymore people."

* * *

The hallway was crowded, meaning the incident with the collapsing classroom had probably already spread throughout the school and the staff was busy evacuating students. With hushed whispers and gossip around them, Madoka and Sayaka made their way against the tide of the crowd.

"Madoka are we sure about this? We should be asking for help." Sayaka whispered.

"There's no one that can help. We're the only ones with stands here. Only we can stop Homura before she hurts anyone else."

Sayaka swallowed. "What's up with her anyway? I know she's weird...but I didn't think she'd be that crazy."

Madoka didn't have an answer. She didn't have an answer really, given how bizarre things were in the last few days. She knew for certain though that something was off with Homura Akemi, as if she had been replaced by another person masquerading with her face. And she had a feeling in her gut that the thing she saw moving in her hair might have something to do with it.

A gust of wind blew past, causing Madoka's twintails to flutter, prompting her to look back. She almost thought nothing of it, until she realized that, given the crowd and the location of the windowless hallway being at the center of the school building, it was strange that a gust could even blow through. Perhaps she was being a bit too paranoid…

A student bumped into her as she was distracted. The girl bowed and apologized before walking off.

The color drained from Madoka's face.

"Madoka?" Sayaka said, noticing Madoka's shivering. "Are...are you okay?"

Madoka couldn't answer. The shattering pain in her shoulder, right where the student bumped into her, caused her to buckle and nearly kneel over. It took all of her willpower to not scream out and make everyone else panic. She clutched her clavicle with tight fingers.

 _My my shoulder...it feels like I've been rammed into by a thick log!_

But how? How could her shoulder have been shattered like that? She didn't see any attack...or did she?

Did the girl bumping into her caused her shoulder to break?

"Madoka!" Sayaka ran to her friend.

Madoka quickly yelled to stop her. "Sayaka...don't come near me!"

Another gust of wind blew through, fluttering Sayaka's hair. But there was something carried along with the wind. A faint image, a flickering shadow. A skull-like face covered in flowers and framed by long black hair.

It was Twisted Sister.

There was no way it could be moving that fast, not when Endless Dream was capable of matching its speed before. Now, it was like the wind, capable of effortlessly vanishing as fast as it had appeared. Worse, its user was nowhere to be found, the crowd around them more than enough to mask her presence. Even worse still, was the fact that the stand had touched Sayaka before it ran away.

"Sayaka don't move!" Madoka said.

"Huh?" Sayaka blinked.

Suddenly, a teacher noticed

"Hey, what are you doing? Haven't you heard? The whole school is evacuating…an entire room collapsed!"

"Eh?" Sayaka turned around, right as the teacher placed his hands on her shoulders, with a slightly forceful tap that otherwise wouldn't have hurt. A tap that was just enough however when under the influence of Twisted Sister's powers to cause Sayaka to fall down, her skin reduced to being as frail as the weakest, cracked glass.

"Gagh!" Sayaka yelled. She flopped, clutching her injured shoulder.

"Huh?" The teacher went wide eyed. "Oh my God! What happened? I...I couldn't have-"

A dark shadow cloaked figure appeared behind him. When the figure stepped out of the darkness, Madoka instantly recognized the long dark hair, the uniform, the elaborate shield, and most of all, those black calculating eyes on that pale face.

"Homura!" Madoka yelled.

The teacher turned around, shocked to see Homura devilishly grinning behind him.

"Thanks for taking care of that idiot for me," Homura whispered.

"What? Young lady what on Earth are you talking about-"

Twisted Sister appeared and slapped the man sideways, causing blood to leave his lips and causing his eyes to roll back until only their whites were exposed. He collapsed instantly, fainting onto the floor.

A girl shrieked. The crowd dispersed like a frightened herd upon seeing a grown man get toppled by a seemingly invisible force. There were even a few shouts about ghosts and curses.

In an instant, the hallway was emptied, a stark contrast to what it was before. And all it took was the girl in front of them, whose hair flapped in the air much like a vengeful spirit's from a horror movie. Her eyes were just as ominous.

"Good, now we're alone...though I'm grateful for the crowd for injuring you two so effortlessly," Homura mocked.

"You...you used your stand to weaken our bodies so that even bumping into someone in the crowd could hurt us…" Madoka said through gritted teeth. Her shoulder still throbbed.

"Clever no?" Homura said.

"Yeah...except you've left yourself wide open!" Sayaka yelled.

"Wide open?" Homura replied with a condescending glare. "You sound like you came out of a childish battle manga."

"Cutting Crew!"

The piscine, robotic knight erupted out of Sayaka's body, sword poised directly at Homura. It lunged forward, towards her and Twisted Sister levitating around her.

The stand sent forth a few jabs, but Twisted Sister dodged them all.

Even more frightening was the fact that Homura moved just as quickly as her stand, both of which demonstrated a speed that they hadn't before. Their swiftness caught Sayaka off guard as Homura stepped behind her, moving like a blur.

Sayaka couldn't even turn around in time before Twisted Sister reached its claws out for her.

Seeing her friend in danger, Madoka jumped into action. Endless Dream shot forth like a cannonball, reaching forward to deflect the attack.

That's when Madoka experienced something strange about her own stand, right as it neared Twisted Sister. Her stand was picking up speed, far more speed than she knew it had. It felt as if a weight had been removed from it, a weight that Madoka never knew it had. Untethered, it rushed forth like lightning, sending a fist towards Twisted Sister.

Homura glanced sideways, her eyes going wide. She quickly sidestepped back along with her stand with the same blurring movements as before.

With its newfound momentum, Endless Dream couldn't stop until it slammed its knuckles into the wall, nearly demolishing it and causing cracks to form all the way up to the ceiling.

 _This speed...could it be…_

"Tch," Homura's brows furrowed. "It seems you have figured out my「trick」."

"Trick?" Sayaka said. "What trick?"

Madoka met Homura's gaze.

She had an idea what the transfer student was talking about. When Endless Dream moved near Homura and Twisted Sister, when it had gained that sudden burst of speed, it felt like she was moving through a vacuum, a place devoid of air.

No air to push her back, to slow her down.

"You...you used your powers to「weaken」the air resistance around you, didn't you?"

Homura grinned. "My my my, you're pretty clever...more than you let on?"

"Weakening...air resistance?" Sayaka said. "What the hell does that mean?"

"She's using Twisted Sister to lessen the air resistance around her...it's how she's moving so fast…there's literally nothing slowing down her movements, not even in the air!"

"What!" Sayaka replied. "How the heck did she figure that out? She barely got her stand! And I'm here still trying to figure how mine works!"

"It's because I'm not like you two…"

The two girls turned to face Homura. She twirled her hair.

"I've been fighting far longer than either of you have. Fighting in numerous timelines that neither of you can even remember. And the kicker? I remember all of those battles in those other timelines, making my sum total of battle experiences trumping both of yours. And because of that, I'm able to pick up on my new powers quicker than either of you two! The air resistance thing was just me experimenting...and it paid off!"

Homura rolled her shoulder. Twisted Sister cracked its skeletal knuckles.

"Because it allows me to do this!"

The transfer student and her stand turned into a blur again, moving so quickly the very wind parted in their wake. They stampeded toward Madoka like an enraged bull.

"Oh crap!"

Endless Dream disappeared from the wall and reappeared in front of its user.

" _ **WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!~"**_

Endless Dream launched a wall of fists, but Twisted Sister and its user banked left, away from the oncoming attacks. The stand only managed to hit where the two once were, and in that moment her fists became so quick from the lack of air resistance that ripped the air from pure friction, causing them to briefly glow and cause ripping sounds.

"That was pretty good!" Homura said. Her shape was still blurry, almost like a person moving in accelerated time. "But not good enough!"

She threw something. A small object shaped sized like a bullet, though much faster than one. It was too fast for even Endless Dream to catch, slamming into Madoka's weakened shoulder.

She screamed. She had never been shot before. The pain was the worst she had ever felt, almost as bad as the time Elly threatened to grab her wrist bones.

"Madoka!" Sayaka shouted.

Madoka fought through the pain and tears, her teeth mashing hard against each other. She winced her watery eyes open to see the object that had struck her, which had bounced off and landed at her feet.

It wasn't a bullet. It wasn't even a thing that most would people consider a weapon. It was only a bottle cap, and not even the metal ones. It was a cheap plastic thing that looked like it came from a Morning Rescue bottle.

"A...bottle cap?" Madoka said.

"That's right!" Homura yelled. She stopped being blurry. She pointed a finger at Madoka. "I don't even need to waste precious ammo to finish you off! With my newfound weakening powers, I can defeat you with mere trinkets!"

"Hey jerk!" Sayaka yelled.

Homura glanced back at Sayaka, unamused as if the latter was an irritating gnat.

"What do you mean「you two」?" Sayaka said. "Have you forgotten I'm here?"

"Oh please…" Homura scoffed. "What can you do?"

"Well…" Sayaka let out a sigh. "Why don't you look at your feet?"

"Huh? What are-"

Homura tried to move forward, but her leg was stuck. Stuck inside a fissure carved into a floor, a fissure that wasn't there before.

"What is this?" Homura said. "When did this crack in the floor appear?"

"A crack?" Sayaka said almost nonchalantly. "It isn't a crack. It's a scratch made by my Cutting Crew.

And just like how you've experimented with your stand's abilities, I'll do the same here!"

The fissure clamped down around Homura's foot, making sure its grip was tight before it began to slither across the floor like a snake, crawling up the wall and taking an enraged Homura with it.

"You imbecile! Let me down at once!" Homura said, dangling upside down from the ceiling where the fissure stopped moving.

Twisted Sister rushed forward.

"Twisted Sister! Destroy her!"

The stand vanished into a blur while its user flailed her arms, weakening the air resistance so it would close the gap between it and Sayaka. It reached out with its arms, which lashed out quicker than any sort of gunfire.

Cutting Crew appeared, slamming its sword down on the ground. The split it caused opened wide in an instant, giving the impression the floor grew a mouth and swallowed Sayaka whole.

And by the look on her face before she fell, Sayaka didn't expect that to happen. Luckily however, the move, whether intentional or not, allowed her to narrowly avoid Twisted Sister's strikes.

"Damn!" Homura shouted. She reached into her shield and pulled out a gun, firing at the fissure that had clamped her leg. She aimed for the edges just beyond where her leg was caught, firing enough so that the plaster would loosen. She fired with an almost inhuman accuracy, the bullets failing to even graze her leg, but doing enough damage to the bits of ceiling around the fissure to cause them to crumble and allow her her freedom. She dropped down and landed on her knees.

"Sayaka is too dumb to have thought up the idea to lengthen a cut as a means of escape...not on her own," Homura released the clip from her gun after it had been emptied. "Still...even if it was a mistake, it allowed that idiot to slip from my grasp. This mission is taking longer than expected...and the voice belonging to my「other self」isn't helping things either..."

"Mission...what mission?"

Homura realized she had let slip more than she wanted to.

She turned to Madoka, who was still clutching her shoulder, the sleeve of her uniform stained red from the bottle cap attack. She had lost her frightened and innocent gaze, her pupils once again seemingly lit ablaze by black flames.

It was as if she was possessed, like Homura, by another presence. Perhaps...by the mind of a witch.

The girl's abrupt shift in tune was evidence of that.

"And what do you mean…「other self」?"

The possessed Homura shivered slightly. There was definitely something different about this Madoka Kaname, the one with Endless Dream, a powerful witch made into a more powerful stand. But she wasn't going to let herself be daunted by the girl she was sent to assassinate, no matter how much her inner self resisted.

"I don't have to answer you...considering I'll finish you in a mere few seconds!"

With a thought, Homura willed Twisted Sister to weaken the air resistance around them. Already she could feel her body feel light, unrestricted from the invisible forces making her slower than she could have been.

"Twisted Sister! Enough games! Defeat Madoka Kaname now!" Homura shouted.

Without anything to slow its movements, Twisted Sister took the chance to let out a series of rapid fire punches, made swifter than ever before, letting out a violent battle cry to accompany its stand rush.

" _ **HOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMU~!"**_

Endless Dream was quick, but without air resistance to block it, Twisted Sister was quicker. However, Homura knew she had to be careful. When she weakened air resistance, she weakened an area around the stand, which meant fast movements was not limited to just itself. If Endless Dream gets too close, it can take advantage of the same increase in speed, as so demonstrated earlier.

Only when she was certain Endless Dream was caught in a killzone did she halt Twisted Sister's weakening powers, bringing air resistance up to strength to slow Endless Dream's movements. Granted, it had also slowed hers, but the blows were already launched and Madoka's reflexes were not up to par to blocking them.

Homura was certain of victory, until her inner voice reached out again.

 _I won't let you!_

 _Damn it!_ Homura cursed.

Twisted Sister pulled its punches abruptly, its strings being pulled, in that instant, by two puppeteers instead of one.

The skeletal stand's fists only managed to land three strikes across Endless Dream's stomach and torso, which should have been enough to crack ribs but instead only pushed Madoka Kanameback against the wall, who lurched and spat out.

However, it didn't matter if Homura's other self had caused her aim to be off, to have her blows be dulled. She had weakened her target regardless.

"I've weakened you! Now you're mine! Twisted Sister!"

Twisted Sister reached down and began to weaken the floor. Cracks erupted all across, and the floor buckled as both its structure and material strength began to weaken.

The act would mean Homura would be falling down too, but at least she could survive the fall by weakening whatever she was going to land on like cushion or by using her magical girl agility. But there was no way Madoka Kaname could survive the same plummet, not with a weakened body that could be harmed even by bottlecaps.

"HA HA YES! Victory is mine-"

A sharp pain stung her hand. Homura yelled.

A sword had burst through the floor, cutting the side of Homura's hand.

"Oh crap! I forgot about Sayaka Miki!" Homura shouted.

The scratch from the sword was only that; a light scratch and nothing more. The idiot Sayaka probably couldn't even aim right.

But she knew from experience that a scratch was enough. Her Cutting Crew, as she loath to admit, turned out to be pretty terrifying after all, especially in situations where she didn't expect its attacks.

And especially when she was caught off guard enough for Madoka to regain her composure and send out Endless Dream to strike.

The stand let out a stand rush right when Homura was distracted by Sayaka's attack.

" _ **WEHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI~!"**_

Twisted Sister quickly responded.

" _ **HOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMU~!"**_

The two stands clashed fists, their speed and strength causing sparks to fly with every deflected blow. They halted, causing the dust to settle.

Twisted Sister's knuckles were caught in Endless Dream's grasp. But it was Homura who would come to have the last laugh, as her stand weakened Endless Dream's hand, and proceeded to make its hands, and by proxy Madoka's, brittle enough for it to begin bleeding as Twisted Sister pushed its knuckles forward.

"Ha! I win!" Homura said.

"Not even close," Madoka promptly replied.

Homura's eyes went wide. Her grin vanished.

A large ball of light surrounded each of Endless Dream's fists, coming to swallow Twisted Sister's as well. It hovered over her hands, and smothered the cut created by Cutting Crew.

Suddenly multiple cuts appeared, right near Homura's feet. All of the possible places where Cutting Crew could have stabbed its sword. And they were of varying lengths, some big enough to have swallowed up a person.

"It's a good thing I saw Sayaka's trick earlier, otherwise I wouldn't know the limits of her ability…" Madoka whispered. The flames in her eyes danced.

The uncertainty field collapsed, leaving only one scar left. A large gnash right beneath Homura, that made her feel as if the ground had disappeared beneath her feet.

She fell through, swallowed up just like Sayaka had been.

 _DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN…_

Homura mentally screamed all the way down, her rage twisting in fury.

She saw the ground beneath her, rushing towards her. With one last ounce of will, she called for Twisted Sister.

"Twisted Sister! Weaken the ground!"

Twisted Sister appeared and struck the hard floor tiles, making them lose their hardness. They cracked underneath Homura's weight as she struck them, making them feel like stacks of dry crackers breaking beneath her back. However, it still hurt.

She could taste copper on her lips. Her magical girl uniform was torn, revealing a series of modest bruises and cuts. She was slumped lazily over the broken tiles, her limbs lacking the strength to move.

But she wasn't going to lose.

Even if she had lost this one time, she will be back, no matter how many times it takes her. The voice in the flesh bud cannot be ignored. The will of Morgan Nightly Feelgood, known in days long past by another, more infamous name, cannot be ignored.

She stood up, growling like a wounded beast. The flesh bud caused her cranium to throb, making the pain wracking her body worse.

"Hey! Where do you think you were going?"

A shadow fell over Homura. And it was then she was knocked out by Sayaka Miki, of all people.

Twice.

* * *

"Damn...I can't believe I was able to knock her out twice," Sayaka said. She turned to Madoka, who was staring uneasily at the crazed, currently unconscious Homura. "What are we going to do with her?"

Madoka again could not answer. There was no proper authorities to turn to for a situation as crazy as their current predicament.

as theirs. And it's not like the city was crawling with stand users, at least not the ones they could call allies. Regular magical girls wouldn't even be enough, given Homura's powers with both magic and stand abilities. In that regard, she was lucky that Homura seemed to be so infatuated with her new powers that she neglected her old ones, possibly trying to test out the limits of her stand like giving a new car for a spin.

Or perhaps she purposefully didn't use her magic, as if she was resisting the urge to put up a better fight. Madoka got that same feeling when she felt Twisted Sister's blows earlier, as if she wasn't even trying to hit hard.

Perhaps the real Homura was in there somewhere. Otherwise, Madoka had doubts she could have survived their initial encounter when all it would've taken was a well placed timestop and a blow from Twisted Sister.

Perhaps this was the other self Not-Quite-Homura had been talking about.

"Hey Madoka, did you hear what I said?" Sayaka waved for attention. "We can't just leave her here!"

"You're right," Madoka said. "We should ask someone for help, we should-"

Sayaka's expression abruptly changed, to that of panic.

"Sayaka? What's the matter?"

A shout came from behind. " _Nobody move!_ "

A chill went down Madoka's spine. She turned around slowly.

Homura had vanished from her position amongst the destroyed tiles. She was now standing a few feet away in another position in the empty hallway, near the door.

And she had another person with her. A frightened girl with green hair, with one of Homura's many weapons pressed against her wide cheeks.

"No one do anything stupid...or I'll put a bullet inside Hitomi Shizuki."

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	13. Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 5

**Chapter 13 - Homulilly's Twisted Sister Part 5**

Hitomi passed out seconds after the gun was pressed against her cheek.

Homura grinned. Madoka rarely saw her smile, if she saw her smile at all in the span of time that she knew her, but she could tell the smile on the transfer student's face wasn't hers. It was full of malice, belonging to whatever demon had possessed her.

"Y-You...you would go that far!?" Sayaka said. She glared, jabbing an accusing finger towards Homura."Let Hitomi go now!"

Homura didn't heed Sayaka's words. Instead, she pressed the barrel of her gun harder against Hitomi's cheek.

"I'll put it down when I feel like it," Homura said. "And I'll feel like it once you no longer are a threat, Madoka Kaname!"

Madoka blinked. "What?"

Who would think she's a threat? There's few people that know of her stand abilities, and none of them she knew about could brainwash Homura into a bloodthirsty craze. The only person she could think about Elly, who had reason to retaliate after their initial encounter. But she didn't seem like the person to take things so far, to force a friend to hold another friend at gunpoint and attack the school in broad daylight. And her stand didn't seem like the type to possess people despite its ghostly nature, otherwise it would have done so already in their first fight.

"Homura...who am I a threat to?" Madoka asked.

"Not of your concern," Homura said. "I don't even have to answer to you really, since I'm clearly the one with all the cards here. You won't let your friends fall into danger, especially one who has a gun pointed to her face…"

"You won't hurt her…" Madoka said.

Then, to everyone's surprise, she took a step forward.

Homura's eyes widened like that of a furious animal.

"M-Madoka! What are you doing!" Sayaka yelled out. "We're too far to reach her in time!"

"Hey!" Homura yelled. The click of the gun's hammer cocking reached Madoka's ears. "Stay where you are brat!"

"You won't shoot," Madoka said.

"Oh?" Homura licked her lips. "What makes you think so? I couldn't care less about this brat." She waved the gun near Hitomi's face.

"You won't shoot...because you're already in the range of Endless Dream."

Homura stared at her in silence, before breaking out in giggles. "Are you an idiot? I'm nowhere near within your stand's range! Your Endless Dream is a short ranged ability! And I'm clearly-"

* * *

Homura swallowed her words the moment she turned to her left and saw something that made her heart thump.

She was seeing _herself._

More accurately, she was seeing a double of herself, holding a double of Hitomi. A double which Madoka had been speaking to all this time instead of her.

It was then she noticed something even more bizarre.

There was no Hitomi double. The only Hitomi that was there was the one being held by the second Homura. And everything she felt, such as the shaking of the hand that was holding the gun, happened to the second Homura.

It wasn't a double she was seeing. Her perspective somehow had shifted out of her body.

"What! How is this possible!" Homura said.

Then she noticed that the body she was seeing was indeed within Madoka's range, closer than she had initially thought it was.

"Oh crap! Twisted Sister!" Homura shouted.

Her stand erupted out of her and lashed out at Endless Dream. It wasn't quick enough. Endless Dream landed a fist right on the side of Twisted Sister's head, and by proxy Homura's. She flew away from the force of the blow, letting go of her gun and of Hitomi, who fell towards Madoka.

Madoka let out a sigh of relief as she held the fainted Hitomi in her arms. Without the dark determination within her, she could have felt her heart thumping harder than it had ever thumped before. But now, it felt like a colossal weight was lifted off her shoulders as the situation was diffused, even if diffusing it meant knocking out Homura Akemi with a single blow from her stand.

But she couldn't have done it alone…

A bright golden, translucent ribbon, nearly as thin as a string was wrapped around the unconscious Homura's ankle, who was laid out on her back. The ribbon moved like a snake, unwrapping itself and slinking back around the corner of the hallway where a certain person stood. A person who had stealthily appeared behind Homura the whole time without once being detected, who had given a telepathic signal through her magical girl abilities to tell Madoka to attack.

"Phew, that was close. I wasn't sure if she fell for it if I swapped my「sight」with hers." Mami Tomoe said as she wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. She was clad in her magical girl outfit, a vaguely Western style-cap to go along with her European style clothing.

"Tomoe-san!" Sayaka yelled out before Madoka could. Neither of them didn't expect to see their upperclassman so soon.

Mami winked at her and smiled. "Hello Miki-san...Kaname-san...I wanted to apologize for the way I was acting the other day, but I didn't have a chance to when I saw all this commotion going on at school."

A second figure floated behind Mami. Madoka gaped her mouth open.

"Is...is...that a...?" Sayaka stuttered, pointing at the ghostly figure with the peppermint mask and a large yellow circular headpiece.

"Its name is Silk Degrees," Mami answered, staring at her own stand and smiling at it as if it was an old friend. "I believe it is a stand, an ability that both of you share."

The stand vanished behind Mami. Her face then became solemn as she faced Madoka and Sayaka. She did a bow.

"I'm so sorry for pushing you two away. I would never do so. I didn't fully understand Silk Degrees and thought it to be a potentially dangerous enemy. I didn't want it risking hurting the two of you…"

"Ah, in that case…" Sayaka grinned. "You don't need to apologize! You were thinking of our safety after all!"

"Sayaka is right," Madoka replied. "Besides, you saved us just now."

"I wouldn't be able to call myself your friend if I didn't," Mami said. She sheepishly scratched the back of her head.

"But Mami...how did you know these things are called stands?" Madoka said. "Did you meet a strange girl calling herself Elly?"

"Huh? Elly?" Mami stared at Madoka for a second. "I've never met a girl named Elly. But I did meet two new 'allies' who taught me all I need to know about stands. And they even have stands themselves..."

Madoka, still holding a fainted Hitomi, stared at Sayaka, who stared at her back, both surprised that there were even more stand users in Mitakihara than they had thought. It was _definitely_ becoming an epidemic.

"New allies? Who are they?" Madoka quickly asked.

"We can meet them later...but we need to figure out what to do with「her」first." Mami pointed to the unconscious Homura. "And luckily, I think one of my「allies」can…"

* * *

Hitomi was left with the emergency response team that arrived at the school. Her fainting spell had made her think everything was a surreal, bad dream. Madoka spun a story about how she was knocked out by a stray piece of plaster; it was better that she believed anything else besides being held at gunpoint. The nurse too was found unconscious. When she came too, she didn't even remember how she got knocked. It couldn't have been the transfer student that she was seeing just moments before, she claimed, for a little girl of that size didn't have the strength to knock out an adult so easily. The less they knew, the better.

Madoka slipped out of the school amidst the commotion, walking to meet Mami's new allies with Mami and Sayaka. Homura was brought along, her unconscious body carried by Mami over her shoulder. Sayaka was talking to Mami about how she saved a few of the students using her newfound powers. She was positively beaming, talking about how she thought her way out of danger with a power that didn't require becoming a magical girl with fervent excitement. Mami just grinned and listened.

Madoka felt relieved that her friends were safe, relieved that the danger had passed without any innocents getting hurt. But she couldn't truly feel at ease in Mitakihara, in her own hometown, until she finds out the root cause of all the recent occurrences. Until she finds out what had caused the transfer student to attack them at their own school, and why stands were suddenly popping up all around town when only days before, she thought magical girls were the only supernatural presence to have existed.

Her eyes could not help but hover over to Sayaka's schoolbag where the rock was held. She wondered how many more rock pieces there were like it, and how many more people came into contact with them.

She wondered just how many more stand users there could possibly be in Mitakihara, and the danger they pose to her town and friends.

* * *

 **Elsewhere**

The sky turned a shade of crimson as day began to transition into night. It was the time of hour where people went home from work or from school, and was too early for Mitakihara's night life to truly kick in. The streets were barely filled.

Among the few who were out was a little girl, no older than twelve. She had long white hair with two tiny pigtails on the side and wore a distinct pink-red polka-dot dress. She stared inquisitively at a vending machine that was twice her size, selling all manners of snacks, macaroons of different colors and flavors.

Her name was Nagisa Momoe and she licked her lips. A glean glinted on the corner of her wide eyes.

"Alright then...let's see if this works,"

Nagisa placed her backpack, the one she usually took to school, and placed it in front of the vending machine. It was propped open, its insides devoid of the usual pen containers and books it usually carried.

Nagisa rubbed her hands together as if eager to perform a magic trick. Then she closed her eyes and balled her fists, willing a new friend to arrive by her side.

"Alright「Love Bites」...come out!"

A second passed. Nothing happened saved for a gust of wind blowing a dried leaf across the sidewalk. Another second, and Nagisa could feel a raw, powerful presence behind her.

She opened her eyes and turned around.

A figure was floating behind her. A huge monster, with enough muscle to be _almost_ as fit as an Aztec God of Fitness. It was black all over except for its white face, its skin covered in red dots. Its pale face was distinctively clown-like, with a striped, pointy, upturned nose, ending in a minuscule ball of fluff. Yellow spots sat on each of its cheeks, framing the bottom of each of its eyes, its mouth wide and filled with rows of sharp teeth that went past its lower lip, giving it a distinct overbite. Two wings grew out of where its ears should have been, one red and one blue.

Its eyes were mechanical, yellow and striated like that of a stand's.

"Alright Love Bites," Nagisa spoke to the monster as if it was her pet. She pointed to the vending machine, and her stand's eyes followed like a royal dog. "Put that「vending machine」...inside that「bag」!"

The stand studied the vending machine, then it hovered past its user and lifted the backpack up from the floor. It was nearly as tall as the machine, allowing it to easily place the bag over the machine's upper left corner.

Love Bites then began to drag the edge of the bag diagonally downwards. As it did, the vending machine began to sink into the bag, the bag devouring the vending machine like a snake swallowing a large prey animal, its insides stretching to fit the giant metal frame's bulk.

Nagisa watched with enthusiasm as Love Bites performed its sole ability in front of her: the power to store any object within another, regardless of size.

Within seconds, the entire vending machine was shoved inside the backpack by Love Bites, with the backpack itself not changing in size after the stand closed the backpack's lid, despite it now having a six foot tall steel box inside of it.

Love Bites handed the backpack to Nagisa, who took it with glee. The backpack didn't even change in weight, being as light as if nothing was inside it.

"You're the best Love Bites!" Nagisa exclaimed as she slung her backpack over her shoulders. The only acknowledgement the stand gave was slight twitching of its ear wings.

"With you by my side, I can store as many snacks as I want!" Nagisa said. She skipped merrily away back to home, with Love Bites briefly following its user before vanishing again.

* * *

 **Elsewhere yet again**

A young woman with pretty green eyes sat at her desk. A desk filled with disused drawings. Piled around the room were enough crumpled paper and discarded sketches that would have made up an entire tree. There were mannequins wearing dresses, large framed photographs of fashion models wearing clothing that all had a floral pattern to them. Every photograph had her signature on the corner.

"Damn damn damn...the design is all wrong! All wrong!" The woman yelled to herself. She scratched her long, flowing green hair, which was decorated with a ring of delicate cherry blossoms. Three cups of espresso sat beside a smaller table separate from her work desk.

And besides the desk was a light azure soul gem, sitting next to a piece of green embroidered rock held atop an ornate frame.

A door slammed behind her, causing the woman to nearly jolt out of her seat.

"Miss…"

She turned around and saw an older gentlemen carrying a tray with one more large cup of espresso. He was stockily built, his fit frame making his flamboyant bright purple dress tuxedo seem a size too small. He had a curly black mustache, his parted hair white and fluffy as if made of cotton. He wore a monocle over one eye.

"Miss...I don't think all this caffeine is good for you…" The man said, his tone refined and gentle, if not a little bit posh.

"Damn it Antonio, you know I need coffee!" The woman replied. "It is how I, Hanako Kimura, get fuel for my inspiration! And I would rather die than have my inspiration starve!"

Hanako Kimura. The eccentric half-Italian, half-Japanese fashion designer who was renowned for her magnificent designs and aesthetic eye that some said bordered on the supernatural. She had mysteriously vanished from public life a few months ago; becoming a magical girl and turning into a witch was an inconvenience to say the least. But now that she was back thanks to the power of the mysterious stone that was now sitting on her desk, she was planning on making a comeback.

Her new Getrud line will be the talk of the fashion world, with its fantastical designs inspired by the outfits worn by magical girls surely to be a hit with fashion aficionados everywhere. At least, it could be if she could even finish one design, if her caffeine-fueled fickleness didn't get in the way.

"Yes...I know ma'am, but I worry about you," Antonio, her butler said.

"Thank you Antonio," Hanako returned to her half finished drawing, her eyes inching close to the paper on the desk. "But it'll take more than too much caffeine to stop me!"

She continued to scribble, only to stop, curse at herself after seeing that the skirt was too long, the flower pattern on the shoulders having petals that were too big, then crumpled the paper into another ball which promptly joined the others around her feet. She rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Damn it...the designs of a magical girl's outfit is too intricate for me to draw from memory alone," Hanako said. "I need to see a magical girl outfit in front of me to draw one, to get inspiration from one. But how on Earth can I get a uniform? They don't sell that crap in stores!"

Antonio cleared his throat."Ahem...miss, it pains me to see you like this. So may I make a suggestion?"

Hanako slowly turned to Antonio. "You have an idea Antonio?"

"Yes...you can say that..."

Antonio walked to Hanako and placed down the fresh cup of espresso besides her soul gem. He twirled his mustache.

"May I suggest using your fellow magical girls to pose as your models?"

Hanako scoffed. "How on Earth can I do that? My reputation alone won't convince an underage girl with superpowers to pose for hours without moving, when they can be fighting big scary monsters out on the streets." She grabbed the espresso and drank the whole thing in a few gulps before wiping her lips and placing the empty cup on the desk. She tapped her noggin towards Antonio. "You need to think things through Mr. Antonio."

"Yes yes...you are right miss," Antonio replied. "But you have a new「ability」 now...have you not?"

Hanako stared at Antonio in brief silence. "What...what are you suggesting Mr. Antonio?"

"Your「Poison」...it can make a magical girl「pose」...anyone or anything 「pose」...regardless if they want to or not, can it not?"

Hanako's mouth nearly flew open at the suggestion. "Are you...actually suggesting I use my 「stand ability」 to「make」other magical girls become my「models」?"

Antonio said nothing, only offering a shrug.

Hanako pondered the words in her head. She flashed a grin at her butler. "Antonio...I like the cut of your gib!"

* * *

 **Evening**

Dr. Feelgood sat atop the roof of the hospital. Her hands were in her coat, her hair ruffled by the evening breeze. Her ages old eyes stared out at the various lights of the city, flickering like the collective abdomens of a swarm of fireflies.

The noise of people chatting, of cars honking and riding across the expansive serpentine roads that coiled around the city's massive buildings, reached her acute hearing.

"Stand users...attract other stand users. The red string of fate binds us all…"

Iron Maiden let out a giggle behind her.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Due to work and a few stressful non-work related incidents over the month of April, I couldn't update as much as I wanted to. This chapter is a breather for me in many regards, as a way to get back into the flow of writing. It's also a breather in the sense there isn't too much action going on, serving more as a vehicle to introduce two new stand users I've been planning on introducing for a while.

Thanks again for reading.

-Beef.


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